n 




csd? 



lo^l-A 



^Library of Congress. c l 

m $ 

w. ^ 

1 c HAP .3\}A52L j 

^>; Shelf J_>=<__X~__ ^ 



p &g 

IjvoUNlTED STATES OF AMERICA. ^xi 

:*•*.? 9-1 6 v ^'WM 



RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

AND 

MORAL LESSONS 

FOR 

SABBATH-SCHOOL SCHOLARS, 



BY G. D. CHENOWETJL 



REVISED BY D. P. KIDDER. 



NEW-YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT, 

FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL 
CHURCH, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. 

J. Collord, Printer. 

s7 s? 



*<±<D 



^** &C& *Sj>t^ &£&*+*> *&y*+/&*^?£j <^£ — 



<2 



> 



sTl 



C* 



-*«**2& 



Co"$S* 



o* 



Entef%sfaccoj|img^^.ct of C&ngress, in the year 1846, by 
G. Lane & C. £> ^fpPEjc^#3he Clerk's Office of the District 

Court Vf the. Southern District of New-York. 






/ 






PREFACE. 



This book, containing a variety of 
facts and religious anecdotes selected 
from various sources, is intended for 
the benefit of the rising generation. 
It has been prepared with the hope 
that it may exert a happy influence 
on the minds of the young, to guard 
them against vice, and in forming 
their characters for future usefulness 
in society. 

Though this book is particularly 
intended for children, or young per- 
sons, it is hoped it will aid parents 
and teachers, in their noble work, in 
" training up the rising generation in 
the way in which they should go." 



D PREFACE. 

It goes to the public with the most 
earnest prayer, that it may save some 
parents from blighted hopes, and win 
many children to the path of virtue 
and holiness, and prepare them for 
heaven. 

York, Pennsylvania, July, 1845. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

Obedience to Parents : — Thoughts at a Mother's 
Grave— -Disobedient Girl — The Runaway, Page 9 

CHAPTER IL 

The two Little Orphans — Early Impressions never 
forgotten — The Hymns my Mother sung — Little Boy 
killed by Lightning— The Sabbath, . . .. . ... 22 

CHAPTER IIL 

Will it ever be known 1 — Everybody may be of some 
sise— The Widow's Son — Little Nathan, 30 

CHAPTER IV, 
Progress of Crime — C assabianca, =--- 50 

CHAPTER V. 

Religious Truth : — The Mutineers — A Good Boy — 
The Drunken Man — The Saviour, 60 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 
Traits of Character : — The Murderer — The Cruel 
Boy — The Boy who could resist Temptation — Rewards 
of Industry— The Vain Girl, Page 79 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Holy Sabbath, M 



RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

AND 

MORAL LESSONS. 

CHAPTER I. 

OBEDIENCE TO PARENTS. 

The following account, written by one who* 
many years after her mother's death* visited 
the grave of that mother, forcibly describes 
the feelings which the remembrance of the 
most trifling act of past ingratitude and dis- 
obedience will, under such circumstances* 
awaken. 

" THOUGHTS IT A MOTHER'S GRAVE. 

"It was thirteen years since my mother's 
death, when, after a long absence from my na- 
tive village, I stood beside the sacred mound 
beneath which I had seen her buried. Since 
that mournful period a great change had come 
over me. My childish years had passed away, 
and with them my youthful character. The 
world was altered too; and as I stood at my 



10 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

mother's grave, I could hardly realize that I 
was the same thoughtless, happy creature whose 
cheeks she so often kissed with an excess of 
tenderness. But the varied events of thirteen 
years had not effaced the remembrance of that 
mother's smile : it seemed as if it were but yes- 
terday that the sound of her well-remembered 
voice was in my ear. The gay dreams of my 
infancy and childhood were brought back so 
distinctly to my mind, that, had it not been for 
one bitter recollection, the tears that I shed 
would have been gentle and refreshing. The 
circumstance may seem a trifling one, but the 
thought of it now pains my heart, and I relate 
it, that those children who have parents may 
value them as they ought. 

" My mother had been ill for a long time, 
and I became so accustomed to her pale face, 
and her weak voice, that I was not frightened 
at them, as children usually are. At first, it is 
true, I sobbed violently ; but when day after day 
I returned from school and found her the same, 
I began to believe she would always be spared 
to me : but they told me she would die. 

" One day, when I had lost my place in class, 
and did my work wrong side outward, I came 
home discouraged and fretful. I went to my 
mother's chamber : she was paler than usual ; 



AND MORAL LESSONS, 11 

but she met me with the same affectionate 
smile that always welcomed my return. Alas ! 
when I look back through the lapse of thirteen 
years, I think my heart must have been stone 
not to be melted by it. She requested me to go 
down stairs and bring her a glass of water. I 
pettishly asked why she did not call a domestic 
to do it. With a look of mild reproach, which 
I shall never forget if I live to be a hundred 
years old, she said, ' And will not my daughter 
bring a glass of water for her poor sick mother V 
" I went and brought her the water, but I did 
not do it kindly. Instead of smiling and kiss- 
ing her, as I was wont to do, I set the glass 
down very quickly, and left the room. After 
playing about for a short time, I went to bed 
without bidding my mother good night. But 
when alone in the darkness of the night and in 
silence, I remembered how pale she looked, 
and how her voice trembled when she said, 
' Will not my daughter bring a glass of water 
for her poor sick mother V I could not sleep. 
I stole into the chamber to ask her forgiveness. 
She had sunk into an easy slumber, and they 
told me I must not wake her. I did not tell any 
one what troubled me, but went back to my bed, 
resolved to rise early in the morning, and tell 
her how sorry I was for my conduct. 



12 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

" The sun was shining brightly when I awoke ; 
and, hurrying on my clothes, I hastened to my 
mother's chamber. She was dead ! she never 
spoke more — -never smiled on me again — and 
when I touched her hand that used to rest on 
my head in blessing, it was so cold that it made 
me start. I bowed down by her side, and sob- 
bed in the bitterness of my heart. I thought 
then I might wish to die, and be buried with 
her ; and, old as I now am, I would give worlds, 
were they mine to give, could my mother have 
lived to tell me she had forgiven my ingratitude. 
But I cannot call her back ; and when I stand 
by her grave, and whenever I think of her mani- 
fold kindness, the memory of that reproachful 
look she gave me will bite like a serpent, and 
sting like an adder." 

And now, young reader, when your mother 
dies, do you not think you will feel remorse for 
every unkind word you have uttered, and for 
every act of ingratitude ? Your beloved parents 
must soon die. You will probably be led into 
their darkened chamber, to see them pale and 
cold in death. O how will you feel in that solemn 
hour if you have been disobedient ! All your 
past life will come up before you, and you will 
think you would give worlds if you could blot out 
the remembrance of past ingratitude. 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 13 

A DISOBEDIENT GIRL. 

One morning, a poor woman came into the 
police court in Boston ; her eyes were red with 
weeping, and she seemed to be borne down un- 
der the heavy weight of her sorrows. Behind 
her followed two men leading in her daughter. 
" Here," said a man to the judge, " is a girl that 
conducts so badly that her mother cannot live 
with her, and she must be sent to the house of 
correction." 

" My good woman," said the judge, " what is 
it your daughter does which renders it so un- 
comfortable to live with her ?" 

" O sir," she replied, " it is hard for a mother 
to accuse her own daughter, and to be the means 
of sending her to prison. But she conducts so 
badly as to destroy all the peace of my life : she 
has such a temper that she sometimes threatens 
to kill me, and does everything to make my life 
wretched." 

The unhappy woman could say no more. 
Her heart seemed bursting with grief, and she 
wept aloud. The heart of the judge was moved 
with pity, and the bystanders could hardly re- 
frain from weeping with this afflicted mother. 
But there stood the hard-hearted girl, unmoved. 
She looked upon the sorrows of her parent in 



14 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

sullen silence : she was so hardened in sin, she 
seemed perfectly insensible to pity or affec- 
tion ; and yet she was miserable. Her coun- 
tenance showed that passion and malignity filled 
her heart, and that the fear of the prison, to which 
she knew she must go, filled her with rage. 

The judge turned from the afflicted mother, 
whose sobs filled the room, and, asking a few 
questions of the witnesses, who testified to the 
daughter's cruelty and ingratitude, ordered her 
to be led away to the house of correction. 
The officers of justice took her by the arm 
and led her to her gloomy cell. Her lonely 
and sorrowing mother went weeping home to 
her abode of penury and desolation. Her own 
daughter was the viper that stung her bosom ; 
her own child was the guilty wretch that was 
filling her heart with sorrow. 

O, could the children who read these pages, 
see that mother and that daughter now, they 
might form some feeble idea of the consequences 
of disobedience ; they might see how unutter- 
able are the sorrows a wicked child may bring 
upon herself and her parents. The mother is 
broken hearted at home ; she is alone and friend- 
less ; all her hopes are most cruelly destroyed. 

This wicked girl was once a playful and in- 
nocent child ; her mother looked upon her with 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 15 

most ardent love, and hoped that her daughter 
would be her companion and comfort in old age. 
At first she ventured to disobey in some trifling 
things. She still loved her mother, and would 
have been struck with horror at being thought 
guilty of the crimes which she afterward com- 
mitted : but she went on growing worse and 
worse, and every day becoming more disobe- 
dient, until she rilled her mother's heart with the 
deepest sorrow. You think, perhaps, that you 
will never become so wicked as she finally be- 
came ; but if you begin as she began, by trifling 
acts of disobedience, and little deeds of unkind- 
ness, you may soon be as wicked as she was, 
and make your parents as unhappy as was her 
poor broken-hearted mother. 

Children never become so very wicked all at 
once ; they go on from step to step in disobe- 
dience and ingratitude, till they lose all feeling, 
and can see their parents weep, and even die 
in their grief, and not shed a tear. 

You have read the story of the kind man who 
found a viper on the ground almost dead with 
the cold. He took it up and put it in his bo- 
som to warm it, and to save its life. And what 
did that viper do? Vile reptile! he stung his 
benefactor ! Yes, as soon as he was warm and 
well, he stung the bosom of his kind friend, and 



16 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

killed him. But that child is a worse viper, 
who, by his or her ingratitude, will sting the 
heart of parents, and thus dreadfully repay 
them for their kindness, and all their love and 
care. God will not forget such a child ; his 
eye will follow you to see your sin, and his arm 
will reach you to punish. 

THE RUNAWAY. 

" A few years ago a boy began to be dis- 
obedient to his parents in little things. Every 
day he grew worse, more disobedient and 
troublesome. He ran away from school, and 
grew up in ignorance. He associated with bad 
boys, learned to swear, and to lie, and to steal. 
He became so bad that his parents could do 
nothing with him. Everybody who knew him, 
said, ' That boy is preparing for the gallows.' 
He was the pest of the neighborhood. At 
length he ran away from home without letting 
his parents know where he was going. He had 
heard of the sea, and thought it would be a very 
pleasant thing to be a sailor : but nothing is 
pleasant to the wicked. When he came to the 
seashore, where there were a large number of 
ships, it was some time before any one would 
hire him, because he knew nothing about a ship 
or the sea. There was no one there who was 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 17 

his friend, or who pitied him, and he sat down 
and cried bitterly, wishing he was at home 
again, but ashamed to go back. At last a sea- 
captain came along and hired him to go a dis- 
tant voyage ; and, as he knew nothing about 
the rigging of a vessel, he was ordered to do 
the most servile work. He swept the decks, 
and the cabin, and helped the cook, and was 
the servant of all. He had the poorest and 
roughest food he ever eat in his life ; and when 
night came, and he was so tired he could hard- 
ly stand, he had no soft bed upon which to lie, 
but could only wrap a blanket around him, and 
throw himself down anywhere to get a little 
-sleep. This unhappy boy had acquired a sour 
disposition, and was so disobliging that all the 
sailors disliked him, and would do everything 
they could to torment him. When there was a 
storm he was pale with fear, and when the ves- 
sel was rocking in the wind, and dashing over 
the waves, they would make him climb the 
mast, and laugh to see how terrified he was, as 
the mast reeled to and fro, and the wind almost 
blew him into the raging ocean. Often did this 
poor boy get into some obscure part of the ship, 
and weep as he thought of the home he had 
forsaken. He thought of his father and his 
mother, how kind they had been to him, and 
2 



18 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

how unkind and unfaithful he had been to them, 
and how unhappy he had made them by his 
misconduct. But these feelings soon wore away. 
Familiarity with sea-life gave him courage, and 
he became inured to its hardships. Constant 
intercourse with the most profligate and aban- 
doned, gave strength and inveteracy to his sin- 
ful habits ; and before the voyage had ended, 
he was as reckless of danger, and as hardened 
and as unfeeling, as the most depraved on board 
the ship. This boy commenced by disobedience 
in little things, and grew worse and worse, till 
he forsook his father and his mother, and was 
prepared for the abandonment of every virtue, 
and the commission of every crime. Several 
years rolled on in this way, he growing more 
hardened, and his aged parents, in their lone- 
liness, weeping over the ruin of their guilty and 
wandering son. 

" One day an armed vessel sailed into one of 
the ports of the United States, accompanied by 
one which had been captured. When they 
arrived at the wharf, it was found that the vessel 
taken was a pirate. Multitudes flocked down 
upon the wharf to see the pirates as they should 
be led off to prison, there to await their trial. 
Soon they were brought out of the ship, and led 
through the streets with their hands fastened in 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 19 

chains. Ashamed to meet the looks of honest 
men, and terrified with the certainty of con- 
demnation and execution, they walked along 
with haggard looks, downcast eyes, and trem- 
bling limbs. Among the number was seen the 
unhappy boy whose history we are now re- 
lating, grown to be a man. He was locked up 
in the dismal dungeon of a prison. The day of 
trial came. Pale and trembling he was brought 
before the judge. He was clearly proven to 
be guilty, and sentenced to be hung. Again 
he was carried back to his prison, there to 
remain till the hour for his execution should 
arrive. News was sent to his already broken- 
hearted parents that their son had been con- 
demned as a pirate, and was soon to be hung. 
In an agony of feeling, which cannot be de- 
scribed, they wept together. They thought of 
the hours of their child's infancy, when they 
watched over him in sickness, and soothed him 
in sleep. They thought of the joy they then 
anticipated in his opening years, and of the 
comfort they hoped he would be to them in 
declining age. And now to think of him, a 
hardened criminal, in the murderer's cell ! O it 
was too much for them to bear ! But the son 
was sentenced to die, and the penalty of the 
law could not now be avoided. His own re- 



20 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

morse and his parents' tears could be of no 
avail. 

" One morning, a gray-headed man and an 
aged woman were seen walking along, with 
faltering footsteps, through the street that led 
to the prison. It was the afflicted and sorrow- 
ing father and mother of this undutiful child, 
When they came in sight of the gloomy granite 
walls and iron-grated windows of this dreary 
abode, they could hardly proceed, so overwhelm- 
ing were their feelings. When they arrived at 
the door of the prison, the aged father, support- 
ing upon his arm the weeping and almost 
fainting mother, told the jailer who they were, 
and requested to see their son. Even the jailer, 
accustomed as he was to scenes of suffering, 
could not witness this exhibition of parental 
grief without being moved to tears. He led 
the parents to the dark and gloomy cell where 
their son was confined. O, what a sight for a 
father and a mother to gaze upon ! There was 
just light enough to show them their son, sit- 
ting in the corner on the stone floor, pale and 
emaciated, and loaded with chains. The mo- 
ment the father beheld the pallid features of his 
long-absent son, he raised his hands in agony, 
and fell fainting at his feet. The mother burst 
into loud exclamations of grief as she clasped 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 21 

her son, guilty and wretched as he was, to her 
maternal bosom. O, who can describe this 
scene ! Who can conceive of the anguish that 
wrung the hearts of these afflicted parents ! 
It was their own boy that had brought all this 
wo upon them. Even the very jailer wept 
aloud. At last he was compelled to tear the 
parents away ; they seemed as though they 
would have been willing to stay and die with 
their guilty child. But it was necessary that 
they should depart ; and the jailer having closed 
the door, turned the massive bolts, and left the 
prisoner in his gloomy cell. 0, what would he 
have then given to have been innocent and 
free ! The parents returned home to weep day 
and night, and to have the image of this guilty 
son disturbing every moment of peace, and pre- 
venting the possibility of joy. The day of 
execution soon arrived, and this unhappy youth 
was led to the gallows, and launched into 
eternity." 

Reader, you have been shown, in the two 
illustrations which you have just read, how 
much the happiness of your parents depends 
upon your conduct. Every day you are pro- 
moting their joy or their sorrow. And every 
act of ingratitude or disobedience, however 
trifling it may appear to you, is a sin in the 



22 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

eyes of your Maker, which cannot pass un- 
noticed. 

Remember the command of God : " Honor 
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may 
be long," and that thy life be not cut off by a 
shameful death ! 



CHAPTER II. 

A QHILD'S ESTIMATE OF THE BIBLE ; OR, THE 
TWO LITTLE ORPHANS. 

This affecting narrative was related by a 
gentleman of respectability and veracity, at a 
meeting of the Bible Society in the town of 
Warrington, England : — 

" About three weeks ago, two little boys, de- 
cently clothed, the oldest about thirteen, and the 
youngest about eleven years old, called at the 
lodging-house for vagrants in this town for a 
night's lodging ; the keeper of the house took 
them into the vagrants' office to be examined; 
and, if proper objects, to be relieved. The 
account they gave of themselves was truly af- 
fecting, and no doubt was entertained of its truth. 
It appears that only a few weeks had elapsed 
since these poor little wanderers had resided 
with their parents in London. The typhus 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 23 

fever, in one short day, carried off both father 
and mother, leaving them orphans in a wide 
world, without home or friends. Immediately- 
after the last tribute of respect had been paid 
to the parents' memory, having an uncle in 
Liverpool, they resolved to go and throw them- 
selves on his protection. Tired, therefore, and 
faint, they arrived in this town on their way. 
Two bundles contained their little all. In the 
younger boy's pocket there was found, neatly 
covered and carefully preserved, a Bible. The 
keeper of the house, addressing the little boy, 
said, ' You have neither money nor bread, will 
you sell me this Bible ? I will give you five 
shillings for it.' 4 No,' exclaimed he, (the tears 
rolling down his face,) ' I'll starve first.' Then 
said he, ' There are plenty of books to be bought 
besides this. Why do you love this Bible so 
much V He replied, ' No book has stood my 
friend so much as my Bible.' s Why, what 
has your Bible done for you V He answered, 
6 When I was a little boy, about seven years 
old, I became a Sunday-school scholar in Lon- 
don ; through the kind attention of my teacher 
I soon learned to read my Bible — this Bible, 
young as I was, showed me that I was a sinner, 
and a great one too ; it also pointed me to the 
Saviour ; and I thank God I found mercy through 



24 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

Christ, and I am not ashamed to own him before 
the world.' 

" To try him still further, six shillings were 
then offered him for the Bible. *No, ? said hey 
' for it has been my support all the way from 
London ; hungry and weary, I have often sat 
down by the wayside to read my Bible, and 
have found refreshment from it.' He was then 
asked, ' What will you do, if, when you get to 
Liverpool, your uncle will not receive you1 r 
* My Bible tells me,' said he, ' when my father 
and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take me 
up.' The man could go no further, for tears 
ehoked his utterance, and they both wept to- 
gether. At night these two orphans' bent their 
knees by the side of each other, and prayed to 
their heavenly Father — to him whose ears are 
open to the poor and destitute, and who has- 
said, ' Call upon me in the day of trouble, and 
I will deliver thee/ 

" The next morning the little wanderers rose 
early, dressed themselves for their journey, and 
set out for Liverpool." 

EARLY IMPRESSIONS NEVER FORGOTTEN. 

Many years ago a German removed to the^ 
state of Pennsylvania, and settled in a remote 
neighborhood. He was a poor man, and had a 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 25 

large and growing family around him. There 
were no sabbath schools then to which he 
might send his children ; there was no church 
near them in which to worship on the sabbath 
day. But this poor man kept his family at 
home, and taught them to read the Bible, to sing 
and to pray. In the year 1754 a war broke out 
in Canada between the French and the English; 
the Indians went over and joined the French ; 
they frequently came into Pennsylvania, and 
would burn the houses, murder the parents, and 
carry off the children. One day, while the 
mother and one son were from home, the Indians 
came; they murdered the father and one- little 
son, and carried away as captives the two little 
girls, Barbary and Regina ; the one about ten, 
the other nine years of age. It was never 
known what became of Barbary. Regina, with 
another little girl, fell into the hands of an old 
Indian woman, who treated them very cruelly, 
But Regina never forgot her home, her mother,, 
her father, and their instructions. These two 
little orphans would wander off, solitary and 
alone ; and under the spreading trees of the 
forest kneel and pray to their heavenly Father, 
In this state they lived, until Regina was 
nineteen years of age. At that time Colonel 
Bouquet, commander of the British army, con- 



26 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

quered the Indians, and made them sue for 
peace : he granted it on the conditions, that all 
the white persons taken as captives, and all the 
prisoners, should be delivered up to him : four 
hundred were brought forth, and among the rest 
was Regina. The colonel brought them to the 
town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and had it 
published abroad that all persons having lost 
children by the Indians, might come and see if 
they were among the captives. Poor Regina's 
afflicted and widowed mother, though aged and 
infirm, hurried away to Carlisle to see if she 
could find her long-lost children. When she 
got there, and the captives were brought out 
and arranged in line, she saw no one that she 
could recognize as her child. Regina was 
there ; but she had grown up, and she looked, 
dressed, and talked like an Indian woman: 
her aged mother walked up and down the line 
weeping in great distress ; and as she stood 
with the tears coursing down her face, the 
colonel came up, and said, " Can you think of 
nothing by which your children may be known?" 
She said, " I can think of nothing but a hymn 
they used to sing when we were all together." 
" Well, 5 ' said the colonel, " sing it just as you 
used to do when you were all together." She 
commenced,— 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 27 

" Alone, yet not alone, am I ; 

Though in this solitude so drear, 
I feel my Saviour always nigh, 

He comes, the gloomy hour to cheer." 

Scarcely had the mother sung two lines, 
when Regina rushed from the crowd, and began 
to sing, and threw herself into her mother's 
arms. They both wept for joy. Pious instruc- 
tion imparted to the mind of a child will pro- 
duce an effect that no time will ever efface. 
Old age may come on, time and circumstances 
may change, but these impressions will last. 

THE HYMNS MY MOTHER SUNG. 

There are to me no hymns so sweet 

As those my mother sung, 
When joyously around her feet 

Her little children clung. 

The baby in its cradle slept — 

My mother sung the while ; 
What wonder if there softly crept 

Across his lips a smile ? 

And I, a sick and languid boy — 

Oppress 'd with many pains — 
Oft felt a quiet sense of joy 

Come with her soothing strains. 

The stealing tear mine eye bedims, 

My heart is running o'er — 
The music of a mother's hymns 

Shall cheer me here no more ! 



28 , RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 



LITTLE BOY KILLED BY LIGHTNING. 

A few years ago there was within the bounds 
of my pastoral charge a large and interesting 
sabbath school, for which I felt a deep interest. 
I often visited the school, spoke to the children, 
and witnessed, with much pleasure, their serious 
and marked attention to the religious truths 
brought before them. They were taught to 
reverence the sabbath, and to keep it holy. 
But, in the afternoon, on a warm summer's day, 
three little boys belonging to this school deter- 
mined to break the sabbath ; and, instead of 
going to school, they turned truants, and wan- 
dered off from the church to the outskirts of the 
city, along the banks of the river, to play ; and 
while they were sporting along the brink of the 
water, the muttering thunders were heard in 
the distance, the heavens were soon overcast 
with a dark and angry-looking cloud, the winds 
howled around, and the storm raged with awful 
fury ; loud peals of thunder were heard, and the 
vivid lightnings were seen to dart athwart the 
heavens ! Alarmed at their situation, they fled 
to a tree near by for shelter ; — there they sat, 
pale and terrified, while the raging storm and 
warring elements seemed to threaten an awful 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 29 

punishment for their sin. At length the light- 
ning struck the tree under which they sat, and 
one of the little boys was taken up dead. He 
was carried home to his friends a lifeless corpse ! 
Had this little boy done as he had been com- 
manded, and gone to sabbath school, and kept 
the sabbath day holy, he would have had the 
smile of his God, and been preserved alive, 
But he disobeyed, and was cut down suddenly. 
" He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his 
neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that 
without remedy." Dear children! take a solemn 
warning from the example of this little boy, and 
never like him play the truant, or break the 
sabbath, lest a worse thing come upon you. 

THE SABBATH. 

Hail ! hallow ? d day of holy rest i 
In quietness and peace most blest 

Thy moments pass away: 
At thine approach the noisy world 
Is quickly into silence hurl'd, 

And sinks in calmer day ; 

Emblem of that bright heaven above ! 
Where all is peace, and joy, and love, 

An endless sabbath day ; 
Where the redeenrd in praise unite 
In songs of gladness clay and night, 

Adoru'd in white array. 



30 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 



km— - M 






CHAPTER III. 

WILL IT EVER BE KNOWN 1 

Yes, conscience will tell it ! and if intrusted 
with your secret sins, you must not be disap- 
pointed if she betrays you. She was on the 
spot, and recorded them. She tried to restrain 
you; she whispered in. your ear not to do the 
fearful deed ; and because you would not listen 
to her, she told you then she would publish it to 
the world. 

More than twenty years rolled away, and 
Joseph's brethren appear to have no compunc- 
tion for their crime. They had kept the secret, 
and no doubt imagined that it would for ever- lie 
buried in their own bosoms. But, by the pro- 



AND MORAL LESSONS, 31 

vidence of God, they were sent into Egypt, and, 
by a chain of circumstances, stood trembling 
and guilty before that brother whom they had so 
cruelly sold as a slave. Joseph knew his bre- 
thren, but they knew him not. Conscience 
could no longer sleep. And they said, " We are 
verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we 
saw the anguish of his soul when he besought 
us, and we would not hear ; therefore is this 
distress come upon us !" Conscience is the great 
betrayer of secret sin. Your sin will find you 
out ; it will be known. You can clothe your- 
self with no splendor of which conscience will 
not divest you ; you can enter no solitude where 
conscience will not follow you ; conscience will 
make you pale on your lonely pillow ; and even 
in your soundest slumbers it will whisper, " Thou 
art the man." 

I will here give you a narrative selected from 
the (London) Child's Companion:- — 

'" Ann Morris, some time ago, was given to 
lying ; if she committed a fault, she tried to 
conceal it by telling a lie. One morning Ann 
took the can as usual, and went to a neighbor- 
ing farm, about half a mile distant, for some 
milk. She walked quickly there ; but on her 
return she had to pass a pond, on which a num- 
ber of girls and boys were amusing themselves by 



32 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

sliding on the ice. Ann had always been taught 
not to play when sent on an errand, and her first 
thought was to hasten past them all ; but when 
she reached the , place she saw some of her 
school companions, and she stood to see them 
slide once along — only once she thought to her- 
self : then It was only once each way ; and as 
they went briskly along one after the other, she 
watched them again and again, still persuading 
herself she would only stay to see them once 
more. At length Fanny Reed called her to join 
them ; so she put down her can, and ventured 
on the pond. Ann had but little confidence ; 
she knew she was doing wrong; not being ac- 
customed to sliding, poor Ann fell, and hurt 
herself very much. Just at this time a boy 
went along with a team of horses and upset the 
can, and all the milk was soon lost in the snow. 
Poor Ann cried bitterly. 6 What shall I do V 
said she, l mother will be angry with me.' 
£ Tell your mother you fell down,' said Susan 
Tompkins ; ' you did fall, that will be no story.' 
* So I will,' said Ann ; ' but if mother asks any 
of you, you must say so too.' They all pro- 
mised they would ; and Ann hastened home, 
never once reflecting on the sin she was going 
to commit. Her mother, however, was not 
easily satisfied, and asked Ann so many ques- 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 33 

tions, where she was, and how she fell, that 
Ann had to tell a good many more lies to con- 
ceal the first, and she was found out after all. 
A lady, who lived near the pond, saw the whole 
affair ; and fearing Ann might be much hurt by 
the fall, called on Mrs. Morris during the course 
of the day, to know if she could be useful to 
her. She said she was much surprised to see 
Ann on the^ pond with such rude girls, and 
hoped it would be a lesson to her. This led 
to an explanation, when Ann's wicked deed was 
fully laid open. 

" Her mother wept bitterly when she found 
how wicked her little girl had been ; she told 
how one crime brings on another ; and how, by 
disobeying her parents, she had been led into 
so great a sin. She prayed with her, and shed 
many tears, and her kind mother besought the 
Lord, for the sake of his dear Son, to pardon 
the sins of her little girl, and put his fear into 
her heart that she might not sin against him any 
more. Ann and her mother mingled their tears 
together ; and Ann felt that it was a blessing 
indeed to have such a mother." 

My dear children ! it is better to be punished 
in this life for a fault, than to escape punish- 
ment by telling a lie, thus adding to your crime. 
Ever remember the wise man's proverb, " Bread 
3 



34 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his 
mouth shall be filled with gravel." 

EVERYBODY MAY BE OF SOME USE. 

A poor but holy man, one evening, after the 
toils of the day, said to his children, " I have 
been thinking to-day that every animal which 
God has made is of some use. The horse, the 
cow, the ox, the bee, the hen ; all of some 
use. Everything is of some use but bad men 
and women, and idle children ; these are of no 
service to any one." 

While this poor man talked in this way, 
little Philip listened very attentively ; and the 
words of his kind father sunk deep into his 
heart, and he began to talk thus with himself: — 
" I am sure my father looked at me when he 
talked of idle children ; although I do try to 
help my mother a little, I do not do as much as 
would pay for my dinner, let alone my clothes, 
and my breakfast and supper. It is true, if I 
' were to put down what I cost my parents on the 
one side, and what I do for them on the other, 
I could not say that I was of any use to them, 
or to anybody else ; I do not know that I ever 
tried to do any good to anybody in my life, and 
this is very bad." Thus the little boy reasoned 
with himself: at length it was put into his mind 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 35 

(no doubt by the Lord) that he would try to be 
of some little use to some one ; and as his 
mother gave him one hour every day for himself, 
he resolved to spend that hour in reading to a 
poor blind man that lived in a cottage near him. 
So he went to this poor man, and offered his 
services, which were kindly received ; for the 
poor blind man was delighted with the thought of 
having the Bible read to him, and he would listen 
for the footsteps of little Philip at the hour he 
was expected to come, as eagerly as for one 
who was bringing him his daily food. 

It was a great comfort to the blind man to 
hear him read ; and it was a great blessing to 
both of them, for the Bible was the book they 
chiefly studied, and the blind man was a deeply- 
experienced Christian. He was, therefore, 
enabled not only to profit by the word of God 
himself, but to give much instruction to Philip. 

After the lapse of two years the blind man" 
died, and Philip followed him to the grave ; and 
it was a pleasant thought to the little boy, as he 
stood by the grave, to know that he had been 
a source of some comfort to the poor blind man. 
" To do good, and to communicate, forget not ; 
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." 

A little boy, belonging to a sabbath school 
in London, having every sabbath to pass through 



36 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

a court, observed a store always open for the 
sale of goods. The boy, having been taught 
the duty of sanctifying the Lord's day, was 
grieved at its profanation, and for some time 
seriously considered if it were possible for him 
to do anything to prevent it. At length he de- 
termined to leave a tract " On the Lord's Day," 
as he passed by. On the next sabbath, coming 
the same way, he observed the store was closed. 
He stopped, and pondered whether this could 
be the effect of the tract he had left. He ven- 
tured to knock gently at the door ; when a 
woman within, thinking it was a customer, 
cried out, " You cannot have anything ; we do 
not sell on Sunday." The little boy still begged 
for admittance, encouraged by what he had 
heard ; the woman recollecting his voice, opened 
the door, and said, " Come in, my dear little 
fellow ; it was you who left the tract here last 
sabbath on sabbath breaking, and it frightened 
me so, that I did not dare to keep my store 
open any longer, and I am determined never to 
do so again as long as I live." 

O, may I still from sin depart ; 

A wise and understanding heart, 
Jesus, to me be given ! 

And let me through thy Spirit know 

To glorify my God below, 

And find my way to heaven. 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 37 



THE WIDOW'S SON. 



In a village which stands on the seashore 
there lately lived a poor widow that had seen 
better days. Her husband was a respectable 
sea-captain, and supported his family in ease 
and affluence : but he was lost at sea, leaving 
his widow with two little sons, one six years 
old, the other an infant. She retired from the 
circle in which she had so long moved with 
esteem, and purchased a neat little cottage by 
the water's side. Here she brought up her little 
boys, and early endeavored to lead them " in 
the way in which they should go." She felt 
herself to be but a pilgrim below, and r taught 
her sons that this world never was designed for 
our home. In this manner this little family 
lived retired and respected. The mother would 
often lead her children on the hard sandy beach 
just as the setting sun was tipping the smooth 
blue water with his last yellow tints. She 
would then tell them of their father who was 
gone, and with her finger would write his name 
in the sand, and as the next wave obliterated 
every trace of the writing, would tell them that 
the hopes and joys of this world are as transient. 
When the eldest son arrived at the age of 



38 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

twelve, he was seized with an incurable desire 
of going to sea. The remonstrances of a tender 
parent and an affectionate little brother were 
all in vain. He at length wrung a reluctant 
consent from his mother, and receiving from 
her a Bible, a mother's prayers and blessing, he 
embarked on board a large brig. He promised 
his mother, as he gave a last parting hand, that 
he would daily read his Bible, and as often 
commit himself to God in prayer. For some 
time he remembered his promise to his mother, 
and daily read his Bible ; but the sneers of the 
wicked crew drew away his mind from the 
instructions of his mother, and he placed his 
Bible at the bottom of his chest, to slumber with 
his conscience. 

During a severe storm, when it seemed as if 
destruction awaited every soul on board, he 
thought of his mother, his home, and his pro- 
mises ; and, in the anguish of his heart, resolved 
to amend if his life should be spared. But 
when the storm had subsided, and the seas were 
smooth, and the clear sun brought joy and glad- 
ness over the great waters, he forgot all his 
promises. No one of the crew could be more 
profane — no one more ready to scoff at religion, 
which, in his innocence and childhood, he had 
been taught to love and revere. 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 39 

After an absence of several years this youth 
found himself once more drawing near to his na- 
tive land. He had traversed the globe ; but during 
all this time he had neither written to his mother, 
nor heard from her. Though he had thrown 
off restraint, and blunted the finer feelings of his 
nature, yet his bosom thrilled with delight at 
the thought of once more meeting his parent and 
brother. It was in the fall of the year he re- 
turned, and on a lovely eve in September he 
walked toward his long-deserted home. Those 
only are acquainted with the pleasures of 
the country who have spent their early days in 
rural retirement. As the young sailor drew 
near the cottage of his mother, as he ascended 
the last sloping hill which hid it from his sight, 
his memory recalled all the scenes of " his hap- 
pier days," while fancy whispered deceitfully, 
that hours equally agreeable would again be 
realized. The hills over which he had so often 
roamed — the groves through which he had so 
often wandered, while they echoed with the 
music of the feathered tribe — the gentle stream 
on whose banks he had so often sported, and 
the rising spire of the church, all conspired to 
excite the most thrilling sensations. He drew 
near the cottage door, and found all was still- 
ness. A solemnity seemed to breathe around 



* 

40 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

him, and as he rapped at the door his heart 
misgave , him, though he knew not why. He 
knocked, but no one bade him enter ; he called, 
but no answer was returned save the echo of 
his own voice. It seemed like knocking 
at the door of the tomb. The nearest neigh- 
bor hearing the noise, came and found the 
youth sitting and sobbing on the steps of the 
door. 

" Where," he cried, with eagerness, " where 
are my mother and brother ? O I hope they are 
not dead !" 

" If," said the stranger, " you inquire for 

widow , I can only pity you. I have known 

her but a short time ; she was the best woman 
I ever knew. Her little boy died of a fever, 
about a year ago, and in consequence of fatigue 
in taking care of him, and anxiety for a long 
absent son at sea, the good widow was herself 
buried yersterday." 

" O heavens !" cried the youth, " I have stay- 
ed only long enough to kill my mother ! wretch 
that I am. Show me the grave — I have a dag- 
ger in my bundle — let me die with my mother, 
my poor broken-hearted mother !" 

" Hold, friend," said the astonished neighbor, 
" if you are this woman's son, I have a letter 
for you, which she wrote a few days before she 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 41 

died, and desired you should receive, should 
you ever return." 

They both turned from the cottage and went 
to the house of the neighbor. The letter was 
produced : the young man threw down his hat 
and bundle, and read the following short letter, 
while his manly cheeks were covered with 
tears : — 

" My Dearest, only Son, — When this 
reaches you I shall be no more. Your little 
brother has gone before me ; I cannot but hope 
and believe he was prepared. I had fondly 
hoped that I should once more have seen you 
on the shores of mortality, but the hope is now 
relinquished. I have followed you by prayers 
through all your wanderings. Often, when you 
little expected it, even in the dark cold nights 
of winter, I have knelt and prayed for my lost 
son. There is but one thing that gives me pain 
at dying, and that is, my dear William, that I 
must leave you in this wicked world, I fear un- 
reconciled to your Maker ! I am too low to 
say more ; my glass is run. As you visit the 
sods which covers my dust, O remember that 
you too must soon follow ! Farewell : the last 
breath of your mother will be spent in praying 
for you, that we may meet above." 



42 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

The young man's heart melted on reading 
these few words from the parent whom he so 
tenderly loved, but whom he had disobeyed. I 
will only add, that this letter was the means, in 
the hand of God, in bringing this youth to the 
saving knowledge of the truth, and that he is 
now a reputable and pious man ; from this we 
may learn "that praying breath" can never be 
spent in vain. 

" Let thoughtless thousands choose the road 
That leads the soul away from God ; 
This happiness, dear Lord, be mine, 
To live and die entirely thine. 

11 On Christ, by faith, my soul would live ; 
From him my life, my all receive : 
To him devote my fleeting hours ; 
Serve him alone, with all my powers.' 

LITTLE NATHAN. 

Little Nathan was born in B , in 1822. 

He died in the same city in 1830. He was a 
pleasant boy. When quite young, he was very 
lively and playful. He was very fond of his 
parents. It gave him great pleasure to go with 
his father when he went out on business, or to 
church ; for he loved his father very much. 

When he was about five years old, a gentle- 
man interested in sabbath schools called on his 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 43 

mother, and requested her to send her son. The 
parents cheerfully accepted the invitation, and 
the next sabbath, Nathan, for the first time in 
his life, was a sabbath-school scholar. He soon 
became deeply interested in what he heard and 
learned. His mind was so much occupied in 
thinking about it, that he appeared differently at 
home during the week, so that all noticed the 
change. 

The superintendent, on one occasion, ad- 
dressed the scholars on the necessity of a new 
heart, in order to please God and be happy. 
Nathan was deeply impressed, and said to his 
mother, " I am sure he meant me, for he looked 
right at me." Again the superintendent spoke 
of the duty of secret prayer, and urged it upon 
all to begin immediately to kneel before God, 
in their chambers, morning and evening, and 
pray. The next morning he rose very early 
and went to his mother's bedside. He touched 
her elbow : she awoke and found him standing 
in tears. She said to him, " What do you want, 
Nathan ?" " Mother," said he, " where shall I 
kneel ?" " What for, Nathan ?" said she. " To 
pray for a new heart," he replied. 

About this time, while going on an errand 
for his school teacher, he was caught out in 
a violent storm of wind and rain : it was so 



44 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

severe that he had some difficulty in getting 
home, being thoroughly drenched in the shower, 
and almost out of breath. His mother asked 
him where he had been. " I have been on an 
errand, mother, and I'll tell you what I thought : 
that God sent that wind and rain on me because 
I was so wicked." At another time he slipped 
away from his mother, and she did not notice 
his absence immediately. She soon, however, 
had occasion to call for him, which she did 
several times. In a few minutes after, he came 
from some secret place out of her sight. She 
said, " Where have you been, Nathan ?" 

" I have been praying, mother," said he, 
" for a new heart ; and I prayed for you, too, 
mother." 

Many interesting incidents occurred in the 
history of little Nathan, which I cannot record 
now. He continued to attend his sabbath school 
regularly every week, until Jan., 1829. Being 
deeply afflicted, he was confined to the house 
until May, when he was sent to spend a few 
weeks with his grandmother : but his disease 
growing worse, he returned home about the first 
of July. After this he went out very little. 
He pined away gradually until he died. 

Some time before his death, a friend made 
known to him her fears about his recovery, and 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 45 

asked him if he thought he would get well again. 
He replied, with tears, " I don't know ; some- 
times I think I shall, and sometimes I think I 
shall not." 

He now became very deeply concerned, and 
was very desirous that some one should pray 
for him, and often requested his mother to read 
the Bible for him. Often she found him in 
tears, and on inquiring into the cause, he has 
answered to this effect : — " I fear I shall not 
get well, and I want a new heart." " I should 
not fear to die if I thought I would go to that 
good place." When, however, he found peace 
in believing, he was accustomed to say, " I have 
no fears of death now " — " Death has no terrors 
for me." One day, as he was asking his mother 
if he might join the church, she replied, " You 
had better not say anything about that now. 
You are too young, I do not think it would be 
proper." He said, looking up into her face, Je- 
sus said, " Suffer little children to come unto me, 
and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom 
of heaven." " You, perhaps, may get well, and 
if you should, and go to school again, the boys 
might laugh at you ; and would you not feel 
ashamed then ?" He replied, " If I should be 
ashamed of Jesus, when I come to die he would 
be ashamed of me." 



46 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

" Ashamed of Jesus ! that dear friend 
On whom my hopes of heaven depend ! 
No ! when / blush be this my shame. 
That 2" no more revere his name." 

At another time a friend called and found him 
in great pain. He looked, however, smiling 
and happy, as usual. He asked him how he 
felt. He replied, " Rather easier." Presently 
he said he wished to be taken up ; and while 
he was removed to the rocking-chair he suffer- 
ed intense pain, but he bore it all patiently. His 
cough was so violent that he could not say 
much, but soon asked for the hymn-book, and 
desired this hymn to be read : 

" Jesus, at thy command 
I launch into the deep." 

He was afterward asked, " What makes you 
feel so happy to-day, Nathan ?" 

" Thinking of my Saviour." 

" Then you are still happy, though you are in 
pain ?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" What have you thought most about to-day ?" 

" About dying." 

He was then addressed by a friend, who said, 
" I cannot hope to see you many times more ; 
your friends cannot expect you to continue long 
with them." " Well," said he with a trembling 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 47 

voice, " I hope we shall meet in a better world, 
and then we'll tune a sweeter" — his voice 
ceased — he could say no more. 

He was then asked if there was anything he 
wished to tell the little boys and girls at sab- 
bath school, after he was gone. He paused a 
moment, and said, " Yes, sir ; tell them to love 
the Saviour, and pray to him, and read the Bi- 
ble, and not to put it off" He was then asked 
if there was any particular hymn which he 
liked very much : tell us your favorite hymn ; 
we should like to think of you when you are 
gone. He thought for a moment, and repeated 
the first lines of the hymn — 

" One there is above all others, 

Well deserves the name of friend; 
His is love beyond a brother's, 
Costly, free, and knows no end. 
" Which of all our friends to save us 

Could or would have shed his blood ; 
But the Saviour died to have us 
Reconciled in him to God. 
" When he lived on earth abased, 
Friend of sinners was his name ; 
Now, above all glory raised, 
He rejoices in the same. 
11 for grace our hearts to soften ! 
Teach us, Lord, at length to love ! 
We, alas ! forget too often 

What a friend we have above.'" 



48 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

A friend read, at his request, a few passages 
of Scripture, and among trie rest 1 Cor. ii, 9 : 
" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
hath it entered into the heart of man, the things 
that God hath prepared for them that love him." 
The first four verses of Rev. xxi seemed to 
give him comfort especially. As he heard the 
fourth verse — " And God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes, and there shall be no 
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain" — he opened his 
eyes and looked up with a smile; and would 
sometimes, with a gentle voice, respond. 

He said to the doctor, " Will you please to 
pray with me ?" 

" Perhaps your minister will be in this after- 
noon." 

" Do you ever pray ?" 

" Yes, I hope we all pray." 

" Were you ever a sabbath-school teacher ?" 

" Yes." 

" Well, doctor, will you please to read a 
hymn ?" 

" When I call again, if you will have one 
ready that you like, I shall be very happy to 
read it for you." 

The hymn which he had selected when the 
doctor called again, was — 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 49 

" I would not live alway ; I ask not to stay 
Where storm after storm rises dark o'er the way ; 
The few lurid mornings that dawn on us here 
Are enough for life's woes, full enough for its cheer. 

" I would not live alway ; no, welcome the tomb, 
Since Jesus hath laid there, I welcome its gloom ; 
There sweet be my rest till he bid me arise, 
To hail him in triumph descending the skies." 

Little Nathan ended his career in peace ; he 
died in the full triumphs of faith, and has gone 
to dwell with angels and God. May you, my 
dear young friends, imitate his example ; follow 
him as he followed Christ, that you may dwell 
with him in heaven. 

4 



50 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE PROGRESS OF CRIME. 

The chaplain of the Massachusetts State 
Prison recently communicated to the public the 
following striking narrative of the progress of 
crime : — 

" A few weeks ago I addressed the congre- 
gation to which I minister, on the importance 
of a strict attention to what are denominated 
little tilings, which not unfrequently throw a 
disastrous influence over the whole course of 
future life. It was also further remarked, that 
a large proportion of the events and transactions 
of life, which go to make up the history of most 
men, are, as they are usually estimated, com- 
paratively unimportant and trivial ; and yet all 
these events and transactions contribute, in a 
greater or less degree, to the formation of cha- 
racter, and that on moral character are sus- 
pended, essentially, our usefulness and happiness 
in time, and our well-being in eternity. 

" I then remarked that I could not doubt, that, 
on sober reflection, many of that assembly would 
find that they owed the complexion of a greater 
portion of their lives, and their unhappy situation 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 51 

as tenants of the state prison, to some trans- 
action comparatively trivial, and of which, at the 
time, they thought very little. I requested them 
to examine and see if the remark I had made 
was not correct. 

" This was on the sabbath. The next morn- 
ing one of the prisoners, an interesting young 
man, came to me, and observed that he would 
be glad to have some conversation with me 
whenever I should find it convenient. Accord- 
ingly, in the afternoon of the same day I sent 
for him. He came, and I requested him to state 
freely what he wished to say; he remarked, 
that he wished to let me know how peculiarly 
applicable my remarks were to his case the 
previous day, on the importance of little things; 
and if I would permit him, he would give me a 
brief sketch of his history, and particularly of 
the transaction which, almost in childhood, had 
given a disastrous coloring to the whole pe- 
riod of his youth, and, in the result, had brought 
him to be an occupant of his present dreary 
abode. 

"It appears, from the sketch he gave, that he 
was about ten years of age when his father 
removed from a distant part of the state, and 
settled in the vicinity of Boston. In this town 
was a respectable boarding school, not a great 



52 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

distance from the residence of his father ; and 
to this school he was sent. Having always 
lived in the country, he had seen very few of 
those novelties, and parades and shows, which 
are so common in and near the city ; and it is 
not wonderful that, when they occurred, like 
other children, he should feel a strong desire to 
see them. 

" He had not long been at school before he 
heard there was to be a "cattle show" at Brigh- 
ton. He had never seen a cattle show. He 
thought it must be a very fine sight, and felt a 
strong desire to go. His desire, on the morning 
of the first day of the show, he expressed to 
his father, and was told it would be a very 
improper place for him to go to, unless attended 
by some suitable person to watch over and 
attend to him ; and that such was the business 
of the father, that he could not accompany him, 
and, of course, his desire could not be gratified. 
He was sorely disappointed, but resolved not 
to give up, without further effort, an object on 
which his heart was so much set. 

" The next morning he beset his father again 
on the subject. His father seemed anxious 
to have the son gratified ; but told him he could 
by no means give his consent to go to such a 
place without suitable company ; and though his 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 53 

business was urgent, he would try to go in the 
afternoon ; and if he did, he would call at the 
school-house, and take him with him. This 
was all he could promise. 

"But here was an uncertainty, an if, which 
ill accorded with the eager curiosity of the 
son. Accordingly, he resolved to go at all 
hazards. He doubted much whether his father 
would go, and if he did not, he concluded he 
might, without much difficulty, conceal the mat- 
ter from him. Having formed his determination 
and laid his plan, he went, before leaving home 
in the morning, to his father's desk, and took a 
little money to spend on the occasion ; and, 
instead of going to school, went to Brighton. 
Contrary, however, to his expectations and his 
hopes, the father, for the sake of gratifying him, 
concluded to go to the show, and on his way 
called for him. But no son was to be found, 
and he had not been seen there that day. The 
father, during the afternoon, saw the son, but 
took care that the son should not see him. 
After they had both returned in the evening, the 
father inquired of the son if he had been to 
school that day. His reply was, Yes. My 
youthful readers readily perceive how naturally 
one sin leads to another. But the son was 
soon satisfied, from further questions, and 



54 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

from the manner of the father, that he knew 
where he had been, and he confessed the whole. 

" His father said that he felt it his duty to 
acquaint his teacher with the whole affair, and 
to request him to call him to an account for 
absenting himself thus from school without his 
permission, and to inflict such punishment on 
him as he thought proper. 

" He was accordingly sent to school, and, in 
his estimation, degraded in the eyes of his 
teacher and his school-fellows ; and he resolved 
not to submit to it for any length of time. A 
few days after this he left home, under the pre- 
tence of going to school, and ran away. He 
traveled on until he reached the town from 
which his father removed, and had been absent 
for several weeks before his father knew what 
had become of him. He was, however, dis- 
covered, and brought back home. 

" Some time after this, he was sent to another 
school, in a neighboring town ; but, not being 
altogether pleased, he resolved, as he had run 
away once, he would try the experiment again; 
and this he did. He had been absent six 
months before his parents knew what had be- 
come of him. He had changed his name ; but 
getting into some difficulty, in consequence of 
which he must go to jail, unless he could find 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 55 

some friends, he was constrained to tell his 
name, and who were his parents ; and in this 
way his good father, whom he had so much 
abused, learning his son's condition, came to 
his aid, and saved him from going to prison. 

" But I should make this story too long, if I 
were to detail all the particulars of his subse- 
quent life until he became a tenant of the state 
prison. Suffice it to say, he went on from one 
misstep to another, until he entered upon that 
career of crime before stated. 

" And now, to what do you think this unhappy 
young man ascribes his wanderings from home, 
and virtue and happiness, and the forlorn con- 
dition in which he now finds himself? I answer, 
simply, to the trivial circumstance of his leaving 
school one day without his father's notice, to go 
to the cattle show ! And what do you think he 
says of it now 1 He says, ' I feel all I have 
suffered, and still suffer, is the righteous chas- 
tisement of Heaven. I deserve it all, for my 
wicked disobedience to both my earthly and 
heavenly Father, and wish you to make such 
use of my case as you think best, to instruct 
and benefit the young.' This is no fiction. 
You see here what has been the painful result 
of one act of disobedience to a parent. Can 
any child read this narrative without trembling 



56 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

at the thought of disobedience, even in the most 
trifling affair ? If you once disobey your parents, 
it is impossible to tell to what it will lead. 
Crime follows in the steps of crime, till the 
career is closed by irretrievable ruin. The 
consequences reach far beyond the grave. 

" How ungrateful is disobedience ! A noble- 
hearted boy would deny himself of almost any 
pleasure ; he would meet almost any danger ; 
he would endure almost any suffering, before 
he would, in the most trifling manner, disobey 
parents who had been so kind, and endured 
so much to make him happy. How different is 
such a child from one who is so ungrateful, that 
he will disobey his parents merely that he may 
play a few moments longer, or that he may 
avoid some trifling work that he may wish not 
to perform ! There is a magnanimity in a child 
who feels so grateful for his parents' love, that 
he will repay them by all the affection and 
obedience in his power, which attracts the 
respect and affection of all who know him." 

There was once a little boy, about thirteen 
years old, whose name was Casabianca. His 
father was the commander of a ship of war, 
called the Orient. The little boy accompanied 
his father to the seas. His ship became 
engaged in a battle on the Nile. In the midst 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 57 

of the thunders of the battle, while the shot 
were flying thickly around, and strewing the 
decks with blood, this brave boy stood by the 
side of his father, faithfully discharging the 
duties that were assigned to him. At last the 
father placed him in a particular part of the 
ship, to perform some service, and told him 
to remain until he should call him away. 
As the father went to another part of the ship 
to notice the progress of the battle, a ball from 
the enemy's vessel laid him dead upon the 
deck. But the son, unconscious of his father's 
death, and faithful to the trust reposed in him, 
remained at his post, waiting for his father's 
orders. The battle raged dreadfully around 
him. The blood of the slain flowed at his 
feet. The ship took fire, and the flames drew 
nearer and nearer. Still this noble-hearted boy 
would not disobey his father. In the face of 
blood, and balls, and fire, he stood firm and 
obedient. The sailors began to desert the burn- 
ing and sinking ship, and the boy cried out, 
" Father, may I go ?" But no voice of permis- 
sion could come from the mangled body of his 
lifeless father. And the boy, not knowing that 
he was dead, would rather die than disobey. 
And there that boy stood at his post, till every 
man had deserted the ship ; and he stood and 



58 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

perished in the flames. O, what a boy was 
that ! Everybody that ever heard of him thinks 
he was one of the bravest boys that ever was 
born. Rather than disobey his father, he would 
die in the flames. This account has been 
written in poetry ; and as the children who read 
this book would like to read it, I will here 
present it : — 

CASABIANCA. 

The boy stood on the burning deck, 

Whence all but he had fled ; 
The flame that lit the battle wreck 

Shone round him o'er the dead. 

Yet, beautiful and bright he stood, 

As born to rule the storm ; 
A creature of heroic mood, 

A proud, though child-like form. 

The flames roll'd on ; he would not go 

Without his father's word ; 
That father, faint in death below, 

His voice no longer heard. 

He call'd aloud — " Say, father, say, 

If yet my task is done !" 
He knew not that the chieftain lay 

Unconscious of his son. 

" Speak, father," once again he cried, 

" If I may yet be gone !" 
And — but the booming shots replied, 

And fast the flames roll'd on. 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 59 

Upon his brow he felt their breath, 

And in his waving hair ; 
And look'd from his lone post of death 

In still, but brave despair. 

And shouted but once more aloud, 

" My father, must I stay?" 
While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud, 

The wreathing fires made way. 

They wrapp'd the ship in splendor wild, 

They caught the flag on high, 
And stream'd above the gallant child, 

Like banners in the sky. 
Then came a burst of thunder sound— 

The boy — O where was he ? 
Ask of the winds that far around 

With fragments strew'd the sea. 
With mast, and helm, and pennon fair, 

That well had borne their part ; 
But the noblest thing that perish'd there 

Was that young faithful heart. 

You may have known some bad boys who 
thought it looked brave to care nothing for the 
feelings of their parents ; but do you think that 
this little boy was a coward? No! the boy 
who is truly brave has a noble spirit, and will 
obey his parents. If others oppose him, and 
persuade him to act differently, he will tell them 
plainly he intends to do his duty. The fact is, 
in almost every case disobedient boys are mean 
and cowardly. 



60 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

CHAPTER V. 

RELIGIOUS TRUTH. 

I now purpose to recommend to your serious 
consideration the subject of religion. That 
you may know your duty, it is important that 
you should properly understand your own cha- 
racter in the sight of God. I shall try to make 
this plain to you by the following illustrations : — 

THE MUTINEERS. 

A few years ago a ship sailed from England 
to explore the Northern Ocean. As it was a 
voyage of no common danger to face the storms 
and the tempests of those icy seas, a crew of 
experienced seamen was obtained, and placed 
under the guidance of a commander of long- 
tried skill. As the ship sailed from port, the 
weather was pleasant, the breeze favorable, all 
was joyous, all was harmony on board, and all 
were obedient to their commander. 

As weeks passed away, and they pressed 
forward on the wide waste of waters, there were 
occasional acts of neglect of duty. Still the 
commander retained his authority : no one ven- 
tured to refuse subjection to him. But as the 
ship advanced further and further into those un- 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 61 

explored regions, new toils and dangers stared 
them in the face. The cold blasts of those 
northern regions chilled their limbs. Mountains 
of ice, dashed about by the tempests, threaten- 
ed destruction to the ship and the crew. As 
far as the eye could reach, a dreary view of 
chilling waves and floating ice warned them of 
dangers from which no human power could sav 7 e 
them. The ship was far away from home, and 
in regions which had seldom, if ever, been seen 
by mortal eyes. The boldest seemed at times 
appalled by the danger that awaited them. Un- 
der these circumstances, the spirit of revolt broke 
out among the crew : they resolved that they 
would no longer be in subjection to their com- 
mander : they rose together in rebellion ; de- 
prived him of his authority, and took the control 
of the vessel into their own hands. They then 
placed their commander in an open boat, and 
throwing him a few articles of provision, turned 
him adrift upon the wide and cheerless ocean, 
and he never was heard of after. Appointing 
one of their number as commander, they turned 
the ship in a different direction, and regulated 
all their movements by their own will. They 
had deprived their lawful commander of his 
authority, and elevated another to fill his place. 
A stranger would, perhaps, have perceived no 



62 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

material difference, after this change, in the 
conduct of the crew. The preservation of their 
own lives rendered it necessary that the rules 
of naval discipline should be observed ; by night 
the watches were set and relieved, as before ; 
the helmsman performed his accustomed duty, 
and the sails were spread to the winds, or furled 
in the tempest, as occasion required. But still, 
they were all guilty of mutiny and murder. 
They were miserable. They had refused to 
submit to their lawful commander ; consequent- 
ly, by the laws of their country, they were all 
condemned to be hung. The faithful discharge 
of their duties, each day after their revolt, did 
not free them from blame : the crime of which 
they were guilty, and for which they deserved 
the severest punishment, was the refusal to sub- 
mit to lawful authority. 

Now, our situation is very similar to this re- 
bellious crew. We have said in our hearts, 
that we will not have the man Christ Jesus 
to reign over us. Instead of living in entire 
obedience, we have defied his authority, and 
chosen to rule ourselves. The accusation 
which God has against us, is, that we will not 
obey his authority, and submit to him as our 
ruler. Some children think if they do not tell 
lies, and if they obey their parents, this is all 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 63 

God requires of them. This is a great mistake. 
God not only requires us to do our duty to our 
parents, but he requires of us, also, a change 
of heart. " Ye must be born again." He 
requires that we should love him with all the 
heart, and our neighbor as ourselves, and at all 
times to do those things that are pleasing in 
his sight. While the mutinous seamen had 
command of the vessel, they might have been 
kind to one another, they might with unwea- 
ried diligence have seen that everything was in 
its proper place, and obeyed, with the utmost 
fidelity, the commands of their captain ; but not- 
withstanding all this, their former guilt was un- 
diminished. They had rebelled against lawful 
authority, and for this they were exposed to the 
penalty of the law which doomed them to death. 
Thus it is, my dear young friend, with us. 
We may be kind one to another ; we may be 
free from guile ; we may perform a great many 
good works ; yet, if our hearts are not changed, 
and if we are not in subjection to God, we are 
justly exposed to the penalty of his violated 
law, which is death. What would have been 
thought of one of these rebellious seamen, if, 
when brought before the bar of his country, he 
had pleaded in defense, that, after his revolt, he 
had been faithful to his new commander ? Would 



64 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

any one, because of that, consider him innocent? 
No ! he would have been led at once to the 
scaffold ; and the voice of an indignant public 
would have said he suffered justly for his crime. 
So it is with you, my young friend. It is your 
duty, at all times, to be obedient to God. The 
charge which God brings against us, is, that we 
have refused to obey him. For this we deserve 
that penalty which God has threatened against 
rebellion. If we love our parents ever so ar- 
dently, it will not save us, unless we love God. 
If we are ever so kind to those around us, this 
will not secure God's approbation unless we 
obey him ; and we shall be as foolish as the 
guilty mutineer, if we expect that any such ex- 
cuses will save us from the penalty of his law. 
We cannot, by any fidelity in the common 
duties of life, atone for the neglect of love to 
our Maker. We have broken away from his 
authority. We follow our own inclinations, and 
are obedient to the directions of others, rather 
than those of our Maker. The fact is, the du- 
ties we owe to God and our fellow-men are not 
to be separated. God expects the child, in the 
morning, to acknowledge his dependence upon 
his Maker, and to pray for assistance to do that 
which is right, during all the day. He expects 
you, when the evening comes, to thank him for 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 65 

all his goodness, and solemnly promise, all your 
days, to be obedient to his authority. You must 
not only love your parents, but you must love 
your God supremely. You must try to have 
your words pure, and all your conduct holy in 
the sight of God. Now, when you look back 
on your past life, and when you examine your 
present feelings, do you not see that you have 
not obeyed God in all things ? Not only have 
you had wicked thoughts, and at times been dis- 
obedient to your parents, but you have not de- 
voted the service of your life to your Maker. 
God now desires to have you obedient to him. 
He loves yon, and wishes you to be happy. He 
has for this purpose sent his Son into the world 
to die for your sins, and to lead you to piety and 
to peace. The Saviour now asks you to repent 
of your sins, and to love him, to give him your 
heart, that when you die you may be received 
into heaven. Remember the passage of Scrip- 
ture in Rev. iii, 2, " Behold, I stand at the door 
and knock ; if any man open the door, I will 
come in to him, and sup with him, and he with 
me." You see in this his strong desire that 
you should receive him into your heart. 

One of the most affecting scenes described 
by the pen of an eloquent writer is that of an 
aged father, driven from his home bv nngrate- 
5 



66 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

ful and hard-hearted children. The broken-* 
hearted man is represented as standing by the 
door of his own house, in a dark and tempestu- 
ous night, with his gray locks streaming in the 
wind, and his head unprotected from the fury 
of the storm. There he stands, drenched with 
rain, and shivering with cold ; but the door is 
barred, and the shutters closed. His daughters 
hear the trembling voice of their aged parent, 
but refuse him admission ; their flinty hearts 
remain unmoved : the darkness increases ; the 
tempest rages ; the rain falls in torrents, and the 
wind howls fearfully ; the voice of their father 
grows feebler and feebler, as the storm spends its 
fury upon him. But nothing can touch the sym- 
pathies of his unnatural children ; they will not 
open the door to him. At last, grief, and the 
pangs of disappointed hope, break the father's 
heart. He looks at the black and lowering 
clouds above him, and, in the phrensy of his dis- 
tracted mind, invites the increasing fury of the 
storm. And still those hard-hearted children 
refuse to receive him to their fireside, but leave 
him to wander in the darkness, and perish. 
What heart is not indignant at such treatment ? 
Who does not abhor the conduct of those unna- 
tural children? 

Our Saviour represents himself as taking a 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 67 

m 

similar attitude before the hearts of his children. 
He stands at the door of your heart knocking, 
and can you refuse him admission ? He says, 
" Behold, I stand at the door and knock." But 
we treat him with criminal neglect ; and with 
cruel hardness of heart, we refuse to love him, 
and receive him as our friend. He entreats 
admission ; he asks that he may enter, and 
make your heart his home, that you may be 
happy. And there he has stood for days, and 
months, and years, and you receive him not. 
Could we see our own sins in the light they 
are viewed by God and angels, we should be 
overwhelmed with guilt and shame. 

My dear young friend, have you not often 
felt the importance of loving the Saviour ? Have 
you not often wept and trembled under a sense 
of your guilt ? Christ was then pleading for ad- 
mission into your hea'rt. You have, perhaps, 
been sick, and thought you were about to die ; 
O how ardently did you then wish that your 
sins were pardoned ! Perhaps you have seen 
a dear sister die : you wept over her as her 
cheek grew pale, and she drew nearer and 
nearer to death. And when that little sister 
ceased to breathe, and her limbs were cold and 
helpless, you wept as though your heart would 
break. This was a loud call ! this was the way 



88 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

the Saviour took to reach your heart. When 
on earth he said, " Suffer little children to come 
unto me, and forbid them not ;" and now he 
makes various efforts to induce you to come to 
him : sometimes he favors you with prosperity, 
that his goodness may excite your love ; but 
when he sees in prosperity you are prone to 
forget him, he sends sorrow and trouble, under 
which your spirits sink, and the world appears 
gloomy, that you may be led to seek happiness 
in things above. And is it not the blackest in- 
gratitude, on your part, to resist all this love, 
and trample on his kindness, and refuse to sub- 
mit and give him your heart 1 You think that 
those children that refused to admit their aged 
father, and turned him off to perish, were cruel. 
They were, but not more cruel than you are. 
Their father had been kind to them, but not so 
kind as your Saviour has'been to you. He stood 
at the door and knocked, but not so long as the 
Saviour has stood at the door of your heart. 
There is no ingratitude so base as that which 
rejects the Saviour. 

A GOOD BOY. 

A few years ago, while I was stationed in 

the city of B , I had charge of a large and 

very interesting sabbath school, which I often 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 69 

visited. It was a great source of pleasure to 
be permitted to see these little children every 
sabbath, and to impress upon their young minds 
the importance of religious truth. Among many 
others, there was one little boy that drew my 
attention particularly : it was little G. A — — . 
Though quite young, he manifested an intense 
anxiety to learn, and made rapid progress. His 
eye seemed to kindle with the mingled fire of 
elevated thought and pure feeling ; and his 
countenance always seemed to be lighted up 
with unusual joy, and when I visited the family 
circle he was always ready to hear and receive 
instruction. One little circumstance I will 
mention, which shows his great anxiety to hear 
something on the subject of religion. His mo- 
ther, on one occasion, had received a letter 
from an absent friend. Little G. stood by her 
side and listened with intense interest, until it 
was all read ; and then looking into his mother's 
face with apparent disappointment, he said, 
" Why, mother, there is not one word in it about 
religion." At another time, I went into the 
sabbath school to address the children. I spoke 
freely to them on the importance of religion ; 
the necessity of commencing young, of com- 
mencing now. I saw a number deeply affect- 
ed. There sat little G., and the silent tear stole 



70 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

unbidden down his face, his bosom swelled with 
deep emotion, and he sobbed as though his 
heart would break. And when all the rest were 
dismissed and had retired, he kneeled at his 
seat deeply engaged in prayer for the forgive- 
ness of his sins. The next sabbath he was 
there again, and manifested the same deep con- 
cern. In a short time after that, he was taken 
ill : I saw him no more in the sabbath school. 
His disease grew worse and worse, until all 
hope of his recovery was lost. He died, — but 
not without hope. What an unspeakable satis- 
faction was it to those bereaved parents, as they 
followed the last remains of their little son to 
his grave, to know that he had gone to heaven, 
and that they should meet him there ! Dear 
young reader, " remember thy Creator in the 
days of thy youth :" " for you know not the day, 
nor the hour, when the Son of man cometh." 

THE DRUNKEN MAN. 

It is kind in God that he will not let the 
wicked enter heaven. He loves his holy chil- 
dren there too well to suffer the wicked to enter 
and trouble them, or to destroy their peace. 
There was a little girl who had a number of 
her little associates to spend the evening with 
her. They were all playing very happily to- 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 71 

gather in the parlor, when a drunken man 
happened to go by. As he heard their voices, 
he came staggering up to the door, and tried to 
get in. All the girls were very much frightened 
for fear the drunken wretch would get into the 
parlor. But the gentleman of the house told 
them not to be alarmed. He assured them that 
the man should not come in ; and though it was 
a cold winter's night, he went out and sent him 
away. Now, was it not kind in this gentleman 
thus to protect these children ! 

Suppose a wicked man, or a lost spirit, could 
go to the gates of heaven, and try to enter there, 
do you suppose that God would permit him to 
enter ? No ; God has shown his love by declaring 
that the wicked shall never enter there. 

u Those holy gates for ever bar 
Pollution, sin, and shame ; 
None shall obtain admittance there 
But followers of the Lamb." 

There was a certain family which was, a 
few years ago, united and happy. The parents 
looked with pleasure upon the children that 
were growing up around them; they beheld 
them all virtuous in their conduct, and affec- 
tionate to each other. Their evening sports 
went on harmoniously, and these children all 



72 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

seemed to bid fair to be a blessing to their 
parents and to the world around them. But at 
length, one of the sons began to drink intoxi- 
cating liquors, and went on from step to step in 
vice, until he became a degraded wretch. His 
father and mother wept over their prodigal son, 
and did everything in their power to reclaim 
him. All their efforts were vain. Every day 
he grew worse. The brothers and sisters found 
all the happiness of their home destroyed by 
his wickedness. The family was disgraced by 
Mm, and they were all in sorrow and tears. 
One evening he was brought home so intoxi- 
cated, that he was apparently without life. His 
poor broken-hearted mother saw him conveyed' 
in this condition to his bed. At another time, 
when his parents were absent, he came home 
in a state of intoxication, bordering on phrensy. 
He raved about the house like a madman. He 
swore the most shocking oaths. Enraged with 
one of his sisters, he seized a chair, and would 
have struck her, perhaps, a fatal blow, if she 
had not escaped by flight. The parents of this 
child felt that such things could no longer be 
permitted, and told him, that if there was not a 
speedy reformation in his conduct, they should 
forbid him entering the house. But entreaties 
and warnings were alike in vain. He continued? 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 73 

his disgraceful career. His father, seeing that 
amendment was hopeless, and that he was, by 
remaining at home, destroying the peace of the 
family and loading them with disgrace, sent his 
son to sea, and told him never to return until he 
could come back with sober habits. To protect 
his other children, he found it necessary to send 
the dissolute and abandoned one away. 

Now, was this father cruel, in thus endeavor- 
ing to promote the peace and happiness of his 
family ? Was it unkind for him to resolve to 
exclude the vicious, in order to render his vir- 
tuous children happy? No! every one sees 
that this was the dictate of kindness. If he had 
been a cruel parent, and had no regard for his 
children, he would have allowed this abandoned 
son to remain. He would have made no effort 
to protect his children and promote their joy. 

And is it not kind in our heavenly Father to 
resolve, that those who will not obey his laws 
shall be for ever excluded from heaven ? He 
loves his virtuous and obedient children, and 
will make them perfectly happy. He never 
will permit the wicked to mar their happiness, 
or degrade their home. If God were an unkind 
being, he would let the wicked go to heaven* 
He would have no prison to detain them. He 
would leave the good unprotected and exposed, 



74 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

But God is love. He never will thus abandon 
his children. He has provided a dungeon, deep 
and dark, where he will hold the wicked, so 
that they cannot escape. The angels in heaven 
have nothing to fear from wicked men, or 
wicked angels. 

But those who will not submit to his autho- 
rity must be shut out of heaven for ever. If we 
do not yield to the warning and entreaties now 
given us, we must hear the sentence, " Depart 
from me ; I know you not." God uses all the 
means which he deems proper to reclaim us ; 
and when he finds that we are incorrigible, then 
does he close for ever upon us the doors of our 
prison, that we may never escape. If God 
cared not for his children, he might turn all 
guilty spirits loose upon the world to rove and 
destroy at their pleasure. But God is love ; 
and the glory of heaven can never be marred 
by sin. In hell's dreary abyss, the wretched 
outcasts from heaven will find their secure 
abiding place. Where do you wish to have 
your home ? With the holy and the happy in 
heaven, or with the wicked and miserable in 
hell ? Now is the time to decide. Life will 
soon be gone. As we die, we will continue 
for ever. Then, " whatsoever thy hand findeth 
to do, do it with thy might; for there is no 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 75 

work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, 
in the grave, whither thou goest." 

" There are no acts of pardon pass'd 
In the cold grave to which we haste." 

God, in this world, makes use of all those 
means which are calculated to affect your feel- 
ings, and to incline you to his service. You 
now hear of the love of Jesus, and feel the 
strivings of the Holy Spirit. You are surrounded 
by many who love the Saviour, and enjoy all the 
precious privileges of the Bible and the sabbath. 
God speaks to you in judgments and in mercy 
to bring you to himself. If you can resist all 
this, your case is a hopeless one. In the world 
of wo there will be no one to plead for you. 
You will feel no strivings of the Spirit; no 
Christian friends will surround you with their 
sympathy and their prayers. The sabbath will 
no more dawn upon you, and the Bible will no 
more entreat you to turn to the Lord. If you 
can resist all these motives to repentance, you 
are proof against the calls of God. If you die 
impenitent, you will for ever remain impenitent, 
and go on unrestrained in crime and wo. The 
word of God has declared, that at the day of 
judgment our doom will be fixed for ever. The 
wicked shall then go into everlasting punish- 



76 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

ment, and the righteous into life eternal. The 
bars of the sinner's prison will never be broken, 
and the glories of the saint's abode will never 
be sullied. 

THE SAVIOUR. 

There are many interesting parables in the 
Bible, which show us that God has no pleasure 
in our death. He compares himself to the kind 
shepherd, who, rinding that one little lamb had 
strayed from the flock, left the ninety and nine 
in the wilderness, and went in search of the lost 
one. He illustrates his deep concern for us by 
the parable of the woman who had lost a piece 
of silver, and immediately lit a candle and 
swept the house diligently till she found it. By 
this we are informed, that it is not the will of 
our Father who is in heaven that one of these 
little ones should perish. 

This he has shown further by the gift of his 
well-beloved Son. That your sins might be 
pardoned, and you saved from eternal wo, Jesus 
came, suffered, and died. " He who was rich, 
for our sakes became poor, that we, through his 
poverty, might be made rich." The Saviour 
was born in a manger. When an infant, his life 
was sought by Herod. His parents were com- 
pelled to flee out of the country, that they might 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 77 

save his life. As he grew, he was friendless 
and forsaken. He went about from place to 
place, from village to village, doing good to all. 
He visited the sick, and healed them. He took 
little children up in his arms, and put his hands 
upon them, and blessed them. He loved all, 
injured no one, and labored to do good to all. 
And yet he was persecuted, insulted, and abused. 
Time after time he was compelled to flee for 
his life. They took up stones to stone him. 
They sought false witnesses to accuse him. At 
last they took him by night, as he was praying 
in the garden, and led him away to be crucified. 
A cruel multitude came and took him by force, 
and led him away to Pilate. They arrayed him 
in a scarlet robe. They heaped upon him all 
manner of insult and abuse. They smote him 
with their hands ; they scourged him. They 
made a crown of thorns, and put it on his head ; 
set him at naught, and mocked him : and after 
thus passing the whole night, he was led out to 
the hill of Calvary, fainting beneath the heavy 
burden of the cross, which he was compelled to 
bear on his own shoulders, and to which he was 
to be nailed. When they arrived at the place 
of crucifixion, he was suspended upon the cross, 
and they drove the nails through his hands and 
his feet. The cross was then planted in the 



78 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

ground, and the Saviour was lifted up, and ex- 
posed to the gaze and insults of the mob. A 
cruel soldier came and thrust a spear into his 
side. To quench his raging thirst they gave 
him vinegar, mingled with gall. Then he cried 
out, "It is finished," and gave up the ghost. 
Thus the Saviour died. He endured all this 
suffering that he might save sinners. And while 
he hung bleeding upon the cross, he cried out, 
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me ?" He then bore our sins in his own body 
on the tree. If it had not been for our Saviour's 
death, there would have been no help for help- 
less sinners. You never could have entered 
heaven. You must have been for ever lost, and 
endured and suffered the penalty of the violated 
law, which says, " The soul that sinneth, it 
shall die." Was there ever such love as this 1 
And, O ! must not that child's heart be hard, 
who will not love so kind a Saviour, and who 
will not try to live a holy life ? Christ so loved 
you, that he was willing to die the most shame- 
ful and painful death, that he might make you 
happy. He is now in heaven, preparing man- 
sions of glory for all those who will accept him 
as their Saviour, and obey his law. And where 
is the child that does not desire to have this 
Saviour for his friend, and heaven for his home ? 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 79 

CHAPTER VL 
TRAITS OF CHARACTER. 

All must be aware how much more happy 
and beloved some children are than others, 
Some children are always pleasant, and you 
delight to be with them. Being pleasant them- 
selves, they make you feel so. There are 
others who are always unhappy ; whose society 
you will try to shun at all times. The very 
expression of their countenances produces un- 
pleasant sensations. They seem to have no 
friends. 

It is impossible for any one to be happy 
without friends. Our Creator has formed us 
social beings, and we cannot be happy without 
giving and receiving affection . You cannot 
receive kindness and affection, unless you wall 
give them to others. You cannot expect others to 
love you, unless you love them. Love is only 
to be obtained by love. Hence it is important 
for children to cultivate the principle of love to 
others ; and also a kind and obliging dispo- 
sition. You cannot be happy and agreeable 
without it. 

If your companions do not love you, it will 



80 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

be your own fault. They cannot avoid loving 
you, if you will be kind and obliging. If you 
are not beloved,, it is good evidence that you do 
not deserve it. It is true, duty may require 
you sometimes to do that which is displeasing 
to your companions : but if it be seen that you 
have a noble spirit ; that you are not selfish ; that 
you are willing to sacrifice your own comfort 
and convenience to promote the happiness of 
others, you will never be without friends. It 
is not beauty, it is not wealth, it is not a high 
rank in society, that will give you friends, or 
cause you to be beloved. Your own heart must 
glow with kindness and love to others, if you 
would have the esteem and friendship of those 
around you. 

You are little aware how much the happiness 
of your whole life depends on cultivating an 
affectionate disposition. If you will form the 
resolution that you will live in the exercise 
of this disposition, and confer favors whenever 
you have opportunity, you w T ill always have 
warm and ardent friends. Commence upon 
this principle in childhood, and act upon it 
through life, and you will make yourself happy, 
and promote the happiness of all around you. 

Perhaps, after reading this, you feel conscious 
that your companions dislike you ; and yet you 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 81 

are desirous to have their friendship. You ask 
me what you shall do to secure it. I will tell 
you what to do. Do unto others as you would 
that they should do unto you; cultivate a kind 
and affectionate disposition toward others ; do all 
in your power to render them happy ; make sacri- 
fices of your own convenience that you may pro- 
mote their happiness. This is the way to make 
friends, and to secure them. When you are 
playing with your little classmates at school, 
always be willing to give them more than their 
share of privileges : manifest an obliging dispo- 
sition, and they will love you in return. In all 
your intercourse with the world, at home and 
abroad, let these principles be your guide, and 
you shall have a full reward of devoted friends. 
The very exercise of these feelings brings en- 
joyment. The benevolent man is a happy man : 
his family is cheerful and happy ; his home is 
the place of enjoyment. These feelings are 
worth cultivating, for they bring with them their 
own reward. Benevolence is the spirit of hea- 
ven ; selfishness the spirit of hell. 

" The heart benevolent and kind, 
The most resembles God." 

But persons of an ardent disposition often find 
it very difficult to govern themselves ; some tri- 
fling occurrence irritates them, and their pas- 
6 



82 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

sion, like a storm, carries them away, and then 
they will do things to give pain instead of plea- 
sure. You must have your temper in subjec- 
tion, if you would be kind to others. A bad 
temper is a great evil ; if not restrained, it will 
be continually growing worse and worse. 

THE MURDERER. 

A few years since, a man was tried for mur- 
der. When a child, he had given loose rein to 
his passion ; the least insult would rouse his 
wrath to flame, and it burned with rancor and 
cruelty. There was no one who could love him. 
While at play he would become angry at the 
smallest trifles. As he grew older his passion 
grew worse, and he became so ill-natured that 
every one avoided him. One day, as he was 
conversing with another man, he became so en- 
raged at some little provocation, that he seized 
a club, and with one blow laid the man lifeless 
at his feet. He was immediately taken to pri- 
son ; but while there his passions increased to 
such a degree that he became a raving maniac. 
The very fires of the bottomless pit seemed to 
be burning in his heart. Loaded with chains, 
and confined in a dark dungeon, he was doomed 
to groan out the remnant of his wretched exist- 
ence, a victim of his ungovernable passions. 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 83 

It is very common for a child to destroy his 
own peace, and make his brothers and sisters 
miserable, by indulging his evil passions. It is 
almost universally the case, that when a child 
cherishes this disposition until he becomes a 
man, he is a pest to society. By his whining 
and fault-finding, he destroys the happiness of 
all around him ; his home is a scene of discord, 
and his family is made wretched. 

THE CRUEL BOY. 

I once knew a boy who was cruel and selfish 
in his disposition : he took great delight in pun- 
ishing animals, and in rendering his brothers 
and sisters unhappy. He would sometimes treat 
them very badly : he would often quarrel and 
fight with his little classmates, and was a terror 
to the whole school. His parents seemed to 
take no pains to control his bad disposition. 
He grew worse and worse, and would some- 
times abuse his father and mother, for he soon 
became so wicked that they could not control 
him. As he grew up to be a man, he became 
more and more abandoned to his crimes ; the 
whole neighborhood dreaded and despised him. 
He was an outcast in society. He was engaged 
in almost every drunken riot that took place. 
In making an attack, on one occasion, upon a 



84 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

helpless family, at night, while under the in- 
fluence of strong drink, he was very near being 
shot dead on the spot. After making many 
narrow escapes from the prison and the gal- 
lows, he came to an untimely death, before he 
was thirty years of age. Thus the wicked do 
not live out half their days. 

I hope every child who reads this will be 
persuaded to commence immediately the control 
of his or her temper. Resolve that you will 
never get angry : and if your little companions 
do anything that has a tendency to provoke you, 
control your tempers, and speak mildly and 
softly. If you commence in this way, and per- 
severe, you will soon gain the ascendency over 
your tempers and passions, and contribute to 
your own happiness, and be useful to those 
around you. 

THE BOY WHO COULD RESIST TEMPTATION. 

There was a little boy, some years ago, who 
had remembered his Creator in the days of his 
youth. He was a professed Christian. He 
loved the Saviour, and tried to do what was 
right. He went to school with a number of 
other boys who were very bad. They would 
often ridicule him, and do everything to vex 
him, because he would not join them in wick- 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 85 

edness. Near the school-house there was an 
orchard, and the boys would often, without the 
consent of the owner, take the apples. One 
day, some of the boys were going to the orchard 
for apples, and they called on this religious boy 
to accompany them. 

" Come, Henry," said one of them to him, 
" let us go and get some apples." 

" The apples are not ours," he replied, " and 
I do not think it right to steal." 

" You are a coward, and afraid to go," said 
the other boy. 

* I am afraid," said Henry, "to do wrong, 
and so ought you to be ; but I am not afraid to 
do what is right." 

This wicked boy was very much irritated at 
this rebuke, and called Henry a great many bad 
names, and endeavored to hold him up to the 
ridicule of the whole school. He bore it very 
patiently, though it might seem hard to be en- 
dured. 

Some days after this, the boys were going a 
fishing. Henry had a beautiful fishing-rod 
which his father had bought him. The boy who 
had abused Henry was very anxious to borrow 
this fishing-rod, but was ashamed to ask for it. 
At last he called out to Henry, at the top of his 
voice — " Henry, will you lend me your rod to 



86 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

go a fishing ?" " O yes," said Henry, " if you 
will go home with me, I will get it for you 
now." 

This bad boy felt deeply, and much ashamed 
for what he had done; but went home with 
Henry to get the rod. When they came to the 
place, and Henry took down the fishing-rod, he 
said to George, " I have a new line at the 
house, which father bought me the other day ; 
you may have that too, if you want it." George 
could no longer hold up his head, he was so 
much ashamed. However, Henry went and got 
the line, and put it on the rod, and gave them 
to George. 

| A few days after, George told one of his little 
associates all about it. " Why," said he, " I 
never felt so much ashamed in all my life ; and 
one thing is certain, I will never call Henry 
hard names again." Every one must admire 
the noble conduct of little Henry in this matter. 
God loves such a child : he requires a forgiving 
spirit. You must follow the example of Henry, 
and always be ready to forgive. 

AN IDLE BOY. 

Idleness is another bad trait too often to be 
found in the young. Many young persons seem 
to think that it is not important for them to im- 



AND MORAL LESSONS- 87 

prove their time in youth, and that they can 
make up for their lost time when they grow 
older. They think it a disgrace for grown per- 
sons to be idle and to waste their precious time, 
but there can be no harm for those as young as 
themselves to loiter away their precious mo- 
ments as they please, I knew a boy who 
thought so, whose name I shall call Robert. 
His father was a poor man, but of high stand- 
ing and of great moral worth. He was anxious 
to give his son a good education, as this would 
be all the legacy he could leave him. His father 
denied himself many comforts, and went to 
great expense to procure him books and cloth- 
ing, and to send him to college. His kind father 
hoped that his son would be industrious and at- 
tentive to his studies, and graduate with honor, 
and be his comfort in old age. But, alas ! his 
hopes were blasted. Robert was idle. His 
preceptor would often tell him if he did not 
study, he would never succeed, and tried every 
means to prompt him to be industrious. But 
Robert thought of nothing but his own ease : 
often w r ould he go into the recitation room with- 
out having made the suitable preparation, and, 
when called to recite with his class, he would 
stammer and make such blunders, that the rest 
of the class could not avoid laughing at him. 



88 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

He was one of the poorest and most unhappy 
scholars in his class, simply because he was 
idle. At length it was found that all efforts to 
induce him to study were vain ; and the faculty, 
wearied with his idleness and misconduct, dis- 
missed him, and sent him home to his parents. 
His father and mother were deeply afflicted and 
mortified, and they soon became tired of him at 
home, and sent him back again. And now 
came hard times for poor Robert. There was 
but little mercy shown him : he had to go into 
a large room, filled with students from all parts 
of the country, to recite. One day, while I was 
walking through the campus, I looked up, and 
I saw Robert in an upper room, in the college 
buildings, lying with his head out of the win- 
dow, playing, quite unconcerned, while all the 
other students were busily employed at their 
lessons. Poor fellow! he paid dear for his 
earelesness. You would have pitied him, if you 
could have seen him when called up to recite : 
he would stand up and take what the class call- 
ed a dead set ; that is, he could say nothing at 
all. Sometimes he would make such ludicrous 
blunders, that the whole class would burst out 
into a laugh. He was wretched, of course. All 
good scholars avoided him ; and he was treated 
with contempt, because he was idle. Every 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 89 

child who would be respected and beloved, and 
that wishes to have a home in heaven, must 
guard against the sin of idleness. 

But as I have given you the story of Robert, 
which shows the sad effects of idleness, I will 
now present you with another, more pleasing, 
which shows 

THE REWARDS OF INDUSTRY. 

I will now give you a short sketch of Charles 
M . I do not think that he possessed supe- 
rior talents to Robert. Indeed, I doubt whether 
he was equal to him in natural powers of mind. 
But Charles was a hard student : he was al- 
ways careful to be ready to recite well. Some- 
times, if he had a hard lesson, instead of going 
out to play, he would stay in to study. He re- 
solved first to study his lesson well, and then 
he could play with a good conscience. 

I have often heard the remark made of him, 
'" That is a promising youth." He was greatly 
beloved by the faculty and his fellow-students. 
He was happy and respected, because he was 
moral and industrious. At last he graduated, 
that is, he finished his collegiate course, and re- 
ceived his diploma. It was known to all that 
he was a good scholar, and he was respected 
by all. His friends and acquaintances came ? 



90 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

on the day of commencement, to hear him 
speak : all felt gratified, and loved Charles 
more than ever. He is now a useful minister 
of the gospel. Such are the rewards of indus- 
try. How strange it is, that any person should 
be content to live in idleness ! The idle are 
almost invariably poor and unhappy ; the indus- 
trious prosperous and contented. You are 
placed in this world to improve your time. In 
youth you must be preparing for usefulness ; 
and if you do not improve the advantages you 
«njoy, you sin against your Maker. 

" With books, or works, or healthful play, 
Let your first years be past ; 
That you may give for every day 
Some good account at last." 

Humility is another important trait of charac- 
ter, which should be cultivated in early life. 
What can be more disgusting and ridiculous 
than to see a child putting on foolish and vain 
airs ? I have sometimes seen the vain and 
foolish girl tossing her head about, walking with 
mincing step, and speaking with an affected 
tone of voice, all which shows you at once, 
that she is excessively haughty. She vainly 
imagines that others are admiring her disgust- 
ing airs, when the truth is, they are laughing at 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 



91 



her, and despising her. All look upon her as 
a vain and very simple girl. Vanity is the 
sure index of a weak mind, and if you indulge 
in so contemptible a disposition, you will cer- 
tainly be the subject of disgust and ridicule. 




THE VAIN GIRL. 



I knew a young lady once who was puffed 
up with pride and self-conceit. She seemed to 
think because her father possessed a little 
wealth, that this gave her a pre-eminence over 



92 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

others, more deserving than herself. She had 
a very shallow mind, and but little education. 
Few persons visited her without soon becoming 
disgusted with her vain airs, and often left her 
society with their feelings hurt, and with a 
determination to visit her no more. She was 
soon without friends ; and I seldom heard her 
name mentioned but in ridicule and contempt. 
On one occasion she was invited to a large 
evening party ; and, looking around upon the 
company with a haughty air, she remarked, she 
did not like the company; they were nothing 
but a set of mechanics' daughters and milliners. 
Poor simpleton ! she thought she had produced 
quite an impression. And, in truth, she had. 
She had fixed, indelibly, the impression that 
she was an insufferably weak and self-conceited 
girl. She made herself the laughing-stock for 
the whole company. The moment she was 
gone, there was one general burst of laughter 
at her expense. And not one of those ladies 
and gentlemen could ever think of that vain girl 
afterward, but with feelings of contempt. This 
is invariably the effect of vanity. You cannot 
conceal it ; it will be detected, and cover you 
with disgrace. There is no evil disposition more 
common than this, and none more supremely 
ridiculous. 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 93 

You see another girl, whose frank and open 
countenance proclaims a sincere and honest 
heart. All her movements are natural. She 
manifests no desire to attract attention. The 
idea of her own superiority seems not to have 
entered her mind. As she walks about the 
school-room, you can detect no airs of self- 
conceit. She is pleasant, kind, and respectful 
to all her associates. If you ask her a question, 
she answers with modesty and without osten- 
tation. This girl, without any effort to attract ad- 
miration, is beloved and admired by all. Every 
one sees at once she is a girl of good sense. 
She is too wise to be vain. And this is the 
kind of character which secures respect. 

There was once a little girl whose parents 
were wealthy. She was handsome, but was 
very proud of her beauty and of her father's 
wealth. Although she seemed to think that 
every one ought to admire her, yet she was 
beloved and respected by none. She finished 
her education, and left school, as vain and dis- 
gusting as before. A young man, who lived in 
the neighborhood, was simple enough to fall in 
love with her, and marry her., They moved on 
tolerably well for awhile. For a few years the 
property which her father left her supported 
them. But after the death of her father her 



94 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

husband became idle and dissipated, and in a 
short time their property was all squandered. 
She had no friends to whom she could look for 
support, and they were every day sinking deeper 
and deeper into poverty. Her husband at last 
became a perfect sot, and staggered through the 
streets in the lowest state of degradation. She 
was left with one or two small children, and 
without a support. In a miserable hovel this 
poor woman was compelled to take up her resi- 
dence. By this time her pride had experienced 
a fall. She no longer showed the air of the 
vain girl, but now was a helpless and afflicted 
woman. The sorrow and disgrace into which 
she was plunged by the intemperance of her 
husband, preyed so deeply upon her mind, that 
her tender constitution gave way under it, and 
in this condition she was carried to the poor- 
house. There she lingered out the few last 
days of her unhappy life. What a sad end for 
a proud and haughty girl ! And what a loud ap- 
peal is this to all, to be humble and unassuming ! 
You may be in health and affluence to-day, and 
to-morrow in sickness and adversity. Your 
early home may be one of wealth and luxury, 
abounding with all that the heart could wish for, 
but your dying hour may be one of poverty in 
the poorhouse, without a friend to administer to 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 95 

your wants. What folly is it 3 then, to indulge 
in vanity ! 

If you would be beloved, or if you wish to be 
useful and happy, you must shun this pitiable 
failing. If you would avoid exciting disgust in 
others, avoid vanity. If you do not wish to be 
the laughing-stock of all your acquaintances, do 
not let them see pride in your deportment. If 
you do not wish to be the object of hatred and 
disgust, beware how you indulge in fancied feel- 
ings of superiority. Be plain, sincere, and 
honest-hearted. Let all your words and actions 
show that you do not think more highly of your- 
self than you ought to think. Then will others 
love you : they will rejoice at your prosperity ; 
and they will be glad to see you rising in the 
world in esteem and respectability. And, above 
all, you will secure to yourself a meek and quiet 
spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great 
price. 



96 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE HOLY SABBATH. 

" Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord 
thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, 
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man- 
servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor the stranger 
within thy gates." 

This is the express command of God, who 
says, "Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and re- 
verence my sanctuary : I am the Lord. And 
if ye despise my statutes, I also will do this 
unto you ; I will even appoint over you terror, 
consumption, and the burning ague, that shall 
consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart ; 
and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your 
enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face 
against you, and ye shall be slain before your 
enemies. They that hate you shall reign over 
you ; and ye shall flee when none pursueth 
you." 

The great evil of transgressing the law of 
the sabbath is here fully shown. Man is a 
moral as well as an intellectual being ; and the 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 97 

religious observance of the sabbath is essential 
to his moral character. Without it, all other 
means of doing good will, to a great extent, fail. 
You may send out Bibles as on the wings of 
the wind, scatter religious tracts like the leaves 
of the forest, and preach the gospel not only in 
the church, but at the corner of every street, — 
but, if men will not stop their worldly business, 
travel, and amusements, on the Lord's day, the 
cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, 
and the pride of life, will choke all these means, 
and render them unfruitful. 

Now, my young reader, look among those 
who are confined in the state prisons, who have 
broken the laws of their country, and are 
punished, and see whether they were accus- 
tomed to keep the sabbath day holy. Scarcely 
a criminal is hung, who, if he says anything 
about his wickedness, does not confess that it 
commenced by sabbath breaking. 

Chaplains of state prisons, who talk with the 
prisoners, and learn all about their character, 
say, that out of every hundred confined there, 
at least ninety have been accustomed to break 
the sabbath. At the Charlestown prison, in 
Massachusetts, out of two hundred and fifty-six 
prisoners, one hundred and eighty had lived in 
a general violation of the sabbath. I suppose, 
7 



98 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

therefore, that three-fourths of the criminals, or 
seventy-five in every hundred who are hung, or 
sent to the state prisons, are habitual sabbath 
breakers. 

Of twelve hundred and thirty-two convicts 
who had been committed to the Auburn state 
prison previously to the year 1838, only twenty- 
six had conscientiously kept the sabbath. 

Of fourteen hundred and fifty, who had been 
committed to that prison previously to the year 
1839, five hundred and sixty-three were water- 
men, and deprived of the rest of the sabbath ; 
and only twenty-seven had kept it. 

Of sixteen hundred and fifty -three, who had 
been committed to that prison previously to the 
year 1840, only twenty-nine had kept the sab- 
bath. Of two hundred and three who were sent 
there in one year, ninety-seven had been water- 
men, and only two out of the whole number had 
conscientiously kept the sabbath. 

Thus it appears, from official documents, that 
nearly all the convicts confined in our state 
prisons are men who have disregarded the duties 
and neglected the privileges of the holy sabbath. 
Let all classes of society, and especially the 
youth of our land, enjoy the rest and privileges 
of the sabbath, and the effects will prove that 
it " was made for man/' by Him who made man, 






AND MORAL LESSONS. 99 

and that it is well adapted to the well-being of 
his intellectual, physical, and moral nature. 

On the other hand, take from the youth of our 
country the influence of the sabbath and its 
attendant blessings, and you take away the 
safeguards of the soul, and lay it open to the 
conquests of Satan and his legions. Thus we 
become an easy prey, and are led captive by 
the devil at his will. 

A gentleman, in England, who was in the 
habit, for more than twenty years, of daily visit- 
ing convicts, states that, almost universally, 
when brought to a sense of their condition, they 
lamented their neglect of the sabbath, and 
pointed to the violation of it as the principal cause 
of their ruin. That prepared them for, and led 
them on, step by step, to the commission of other 
crimes, and finally to the commission of that 
which brought them to the prison, and often to 
the gallows. He has received numerous letters 
from convicts, stating that they considered the 
violation of the sabbath the great cause of their 
ruin. He has attended three hundred and fifty 
at the place of execution, when they were put 
to death for their crimes ; and nine out of ten 
who were brought to a sense of their condition, 
attributed, to a great extent, their downfall to 
their neglect of the sabbath. 



100 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

Another gentleman, who has had charge of 
more than one hundred thousand prisoners, and 
has taken special pains to ascertain the causes 
of their crimes, says that he does not recollect 
a single case of a capital offense where the 
individual had not been a sabbath breaker. 
And in many cases they assured him, that this 
was the first step in their downward course to 
ruin. Indeed, with regard to prisoners he says, 
that in nineteen cases out of twenty, all classes 
of them have neglected the observance of the 
sabbath and the other means of grace. And he 
has often met with prisoners who were about 
to expiate their crimes by an ignominious 
death, who earnestly exhorted those around 
them to remember that holy day, ascribing 
their own ruin to the neglect of that holy insti- 
tution. 

A father, whose son was addicted to riding 
out for pleasure on the sabbath, was told if he 
did not stop it, his son would be ruined. He 
did not stop it, but set the example by some- 
times riding out for pleasure himself. His son 
became a man, was placed in a responsible 
situation, and intrusted with a large amount of 
property. Soon he became a defaulter, and ran 
away. In a different part of the country he 
obtained another responsible office, and was 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 101 

intrusted with a large amount of property. Of 
that he defrauded the owner, and fled again. 
He was pursued and arrested, tried and con- 
victed, and sent to the state prison. After some 
years spent in solitude and hard labor, he wrote 
a letter to his father, and after recounting his 
course of crime, he added, " That was the effect 
of breaking the sabbath when I was a boyP 

A distinguished merchant, long accustomed 
to observe the conduct of the young, and the 
vices that often lead to their ruin, and who 
had gained an uncommon knowledge of these 
things, said, " When I see one of my appren- 
tices or clerks riding out on the sabbath, on 
Monday morning I dismiss him. Such a one 
cannot be trusted." 

Many a youth, setting at naught the counsels 
of God with regard to the sabbath, and refusing 
on that day to attend sabbath school and divine 
worship, before he was aware of it, has found 
himself abandoned of God, and in the hands of 
the enemy, chained and fettered by sin, sinking 
deeper and deeper into crime, until he is sud- 
denly destroyed, and that without remedy. Let 
every youth who has gone out from his father's 
counsels, and his mother's prayers, remember the 
sabbath, and keep it holy, and be found habitual- 
ly in the house of God, and under the sound of 



102 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

the gospel, which is able to make him ivise unto 
salvation. Let him avoid the violation of that 
day as he icould the gate to hell. 

A man in the state of New- York who had 
presumptuously spent the sabbath in getting in 
his grain, said that he had fairly cheated the 
Almighty out of one day. He boasted of it as 
a mark of his superiority. On Tuesday the 
lightning struck his barn, and set it on fire. He 
gained nothing by working on the sabbath. 

Another man acted as if he thought all the 
evil of working on the sabbath consisted in be- 
ing seen. Consequently he went out of sight, 
by getting behind the woods, but the eye of God 
was upon him. He spent the day in gathering 
in his grain, and putting it into a vacant building 
near by. But the lightning struck the building, 
and, with the contents, it was burned to ashes. 
He who made the eye saw what this man was 
doing, and, in the order of his providence, sud- 
denly blasted all his gains. Who hath hardened 
himself against God and prospered 1 Men are 
not apt, in the end, to gain in that way. 

Seven young men in the state of Massachu- 
setts started in the same business, nearly at the 
same time. Six of them had some property or 
assistance from their friends, and followed their 
business seven days in the week. They had 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 103 

no sabbath. The other had less property than 
either of the six. He had less assistance from 
others, and worked only six days in the week. 
He is now the only man that has property, and 
that has not failed in business ; the others have 
all been wrecked. 

A distinguished merchant, in one of our large 
cities, said, not long since, " It is about thirty 
years since I came to this city, and every man 
through this whole range of the town, who came 
down to the store on sabbath morning, or suffer- 
ed his counting room to be open, has lost his 
property." Men may seem to prosper for a 
while by the profanation of the sabbath ; but it 
does not end viell Their disappointment, even 
here, comes suddenly. 

Not long since, I heard a minister of the gos- 
pel say, that in a late journey he passed near the 
houses of four men who started together for the 
far west. One sabbath morning they discussed 
the question whether it was right and best for 
them to travel on the Lord's day. The result 
was, they separated. Three of them went on 
and reached Buffalo just in time to take that ill- 
fated vessel, the steamboat Erie, on her last 
voyage, and perished in her flames. On that 
same sabbath morning, another company of tra- 
velers, in another place, talked over the same 



104 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

question with regard to the propriety of their 
traveling on the sabbath, and they separated 
from one another to meet no more. Some went 
on their journey, and some stayed and attended 
public worship. Those who went on arrived in 
time to take the same boat. The first night 
out, the boat took fire, and was soon in a fierce 
blaze. Some were consumed, others jumped 
overboard, and were drowned, and but few es- 
caped. " Never," said a man who went out to 
their assistance, " never shall I forget the sound 
that struck upon my ear, when I came near the 
boat ; the passengers were clinging to the sides 
of the vessel, while the burning cinders were 
pouring down upon their heads, and they were 
dropping off, one after another. O it was like 
the wailings of despair." 

Those who stopped to attend public worship 
arrived in safety, in time to take another boat, 
and to remain as living witnesses of the utility 
of the strict observance of the sabbath day. 
" My own brother," said a man who heard that 
statement, " was in that company ; he remained 
behind and saved his life." How many others 
have saved their lives, and their souls too, by 
remembering the sabbath day, to keep it holy ! 
Though the observance of God's commands may 



AND MORAL LESSONS, 105 

not always exempt us from sudden death, yet in 
keeping them there is great reward. 

A man and his wife were very anxious to ar- 
rive in New- York in time to take the steamboat 
Lexington ; and to accomplish which, they tra- 
veled a greater portion of the sabbath. They 
arrived in season, took the boat, and were among 
the unfortunate multitude who, on a dark and 
dismal night, perished in the flames, and went 
down amidst shrieks and cries, to find a watery 
grave. But it has been said by some that all 
sabbath breakers do not die suddenly, or lose 
their property. Some continue to live a long 
time, and, after their death, transmit their pro- 
perty to their children. But you will remember, 
my young reader, it is less likely to be a bless- 
ing to them, than if it had been gained by 
not robbing God. It does not wear well, and, 
while it lasts, it appears to be under the divine 
curse. 

" Those views," said a man, " are all super- 
stition : the idea that it is not safe and profitable 
to work on the sabbath day is false. And I 
will prove it to be false." So he attempted it. 
He ploughed his fields and sowed his grain on 
the sabbath day. It came up and grew finely. 
Often, during the season, he pointed to it and 



106 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

said that sabbath labor was as safe and profit- 
able as any other. He reaped it, and stacked 
it up in the field. His boys took a gun, and 
went out into the woods. It was a dry time, 
and they set the woods on fire. The wind took 
the fire, and it swept over the field, and naught 
but the blackness of ashes marked the place 
where the grain had stood. He could not prove, 
though he tried long and hard, that it was safe 
and profitable to work on the Lord's day. " Wo 
be unto him that striveth with his Maker." 

A man who once ridiculed the idea that 
God makes a difference in his providence be- 
tween those who obey his laws, and those who 
do not, had been engaged on a certain sabbath 
in gathering his grain into his barn. The next 
week he had occasion to take fire out into his 
field, in order to burn some brush. He left it, 
as he supposed, all secure, and went in to din- 
ner. The wind began to blow, and took the 
fire into his barn-yard, which was filled with 
straw, and, before he was aware of it, the flames 
were bursting out of his barn. He arose and 
looked on with amazement, saw that all was 
lost, and fixing his eye on the curling flames, 
stood speechless : then, raising his hand and 
pointing to the rising column of fire, he said, with 
solemn emphasis, " That is the finger of God T 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 107 

Beware, then, my young friends, and be ad- 
monished by the awful judgments of the Al- 
mighty, to abstain from the violation of this holy 
day. One of the greatest blessings of the sab- 
bath is, that it gives time for self-examination 
and attention to the great business of eternity. 
Let us improve this holy day, " with our eyes 
single." " Blessed is that servant whom his 
Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing." 

The Roman Catholics in Europe are sending 
over men and money, to extend their influence 
and religion in the United States. If they should 
succeed, and their religion should be spread over 
the land, the sabbath would be ruined. Roman 
Catholics never keep the sabbath as it is kept 
by Protestants. In Spain, the sabbath is a day 
for the cruel amusements of bull-baiting and 
cock-fighting. In Paris, the shops are generally 
opened ; the markets are thronged as on other 
days ; carts, and drays, and all sorts of vehicles 
designed for transportation of merchandise, are 
in motion ; buying and selling, and manual la- 
bor, proceed as usual ; and there is neither rest 
for man nor beast. A friend told me not long 
since, that while in Paris he was invited to 
preach in the Wesleyan Mission church there ; 
and while engaged in the services, he was very 
much annoyed by the sound of the anvil of a 



108 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES 

blacksmith, who was hard at work near the 
church. In the afternoon the shops are gene- 
rally closed ; labor is suspended, and the rest 
of the day devoted to pleasure, in visiting the 
theatre and other places of public amusement. 
Not less than sixty thousand persons visit these 
places of amusement, in Paris, every sabbath. 
It is their greatest holyday. Another traveler 
says, that if an American were to arrive at 
Malta on the sabbath, " he would not know that 
it was Sunday. A few shops are closed, but a 
vast many more are spread open wide, and their 
windows stuffed full as usual. The poor peo- 
ple are going about the streets crying their 
wares, water, and fruit for sale. The market 
is supplied with fish, flesh, and garden stuffs, 
and is frequented by purchasers as on other 
days. Porters, in their daily apparel, wait at 
the corners of the streets, to take burdens, or 
other commissions that may offer, and water- 
men are plying their skiffs in the harbor and 
inlets." We may learn from these well-authen- 
ticated statements how the sabbath would be 
kept in the United States, if the Roman Catho- 
lic religion should ever prevail. 

In New-Orleans, where the largest portion 
of the people are Roman Catholics, the holy 
sabbath is generally desecrated. Amusements 



AND MORAL LESSONS. 109 

and business are common. Only a short time 
ago a Roman Catholic church was dedicated 
on the sabbath, in St. Louis, the capital of Mis- 
souri. Several military companies, both horse 
and foot, fully armed and equipped, were on 
parade from six o'clock in the morning until 
four in the afternoon. There was all the appear- 
ance of a military review. A band of music 
belonging to the United States army was pre- 
sent, and the sounds of fifes and drums, and cla- 
rionets, and bassoons, were mingled with the 
shouts of the rabble, and the roaring cannon. 
The cannon were placed immediately in front 
of the cathedral. The soldiers were furnished 
with food and wine, and were complimented 
for their attendance in the sermon at the con- 
secration. All this parade was gotten up by 
a Roman Catholic bishop in St. Louis. So you 
see what kind of sabbaths we should have if 
Popery were to prevail in this land. For these 
reasons, I have tried to show you the value of 
the sabbath, and your obligation to keep it. The 
struggle to preserve the sabbath, from what I 
have told you already, will be hard ; but re- 
member, my children, you ought to be willing 
to sacrifice almost everything rather than the 
sabbath, which you have received as a precious 
legacy from God himself. Remember, that to 



110 RELIGIOUS ANECDOTES, ETC. 

Americans a well-kept sabbath is a badge of liber- 
ty ; without it, they never can be free ; with it, 
they never can be enslaved. It is written in the 
councils of heaven, it is written in the expe- 
rience of other ages — Remember the sabbath 

DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY, OR PERISH UNDER THE 
WRATH OF AN INSULTED GOD. 



THE END. 



BOOKS PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT. 



Selections from Old Humphrey's 

OBSERVATIONS AND ADDRESSES. 
One vol., large 18mo. Price Thirty-eight cents. 
" A few years since there appeared in the W eekly Visitor (a 
periodical published by the London Religious Tract Society) a 
number of essays or papers on various subjects of a moral and 
religious nature, which attracted considerable notice by the prac- 
tical good sense, the quaint humour, and above all, the truly 
Christian spirit which characterized them. A number of tnese 
papers were afterward republished in two volumes, severally 
entitled, ' Old Humphrey's Observations,' and 'Old Humphrey's 
Addresses,' in which form they were received with much favour 
by the religious public, both in Great Britain and in this country. 
The present work comprises a selection of the most interesting 
and instructive articles contained in the two volumes just men- 
tioned ; and we doubt not that those readers, whether old or young, 
who may favour it with a perusal, will find Old Humphrey to be 
neither an unpleasant nor an unprofitable companion." — Preface. 

Farmer Goodall and his Friend. 

BY THE 

AUTHOR OF " THE LAST DAY OF THE WEEK," ETC. 

Large 18mo. Thirty-eight cents. 
The style of this volume is very similar to that of the author's 
preceding works. It is a pleasing mixture of dialogue and nar- 
rative, drawing religious instruction from the ordinary events 
and circumstances of a farming life. The book, which is embel- 
lished with a number of wood engravings, is divided into four- 
teen chapters, under the following heads : — Farmer Goodall's 
removal — His arrival at the farm— The survey of the farm— The 
best farming book— The two seeds— The good Shepherd— The 
unruly horse— The market — The lambs, and the springing corn — 
The lost lambs ; the fallow— The wheat harvest — The stonn of 
wind— The ingathering— The barn-floor ; the grain of wheat. 



BOOKS PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT. 



Importance of Prayer Meetings, 

IN PROMOTING THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 

BY ROBERT YOUNG. 
I8mo. Price Twenty-five cents. 



Treatise on Secret and Social Prayer, 

BY RICHARD TREFFRY. 

Large 18mo. Price Thirty-eight cents. 

Contents. — Definition of prayer — Spirit of prayer — The 

several parrs of prayer — Encouragements to prayer — 

Advantages of prayer — Places and seasons appropriated 

to secret prayer — Excuses for the neglect of secret 

prayer considered — Social prayer illustrated — Reasons 

why men should pray with and for each other — On 

public meetings appropriated to social prayer. 

The author of this book, who has now gone to hip reward, was 

for nearly half a century a travelling preacher in the Wesleyan 

Methodist connection, and has long been distinguished as an able 

preacher and a sound and judicious divine. During a lengthened 

season of affliction, in which lie was for months confined to his 

house, and chiefly to his bed, the subject of prayer, its importance 

and necessity, were in an unusual degree impressed upon hi? 

mind, and he was induced, when favoured with a measure of 

returning health, to throw his thoughts into the form in which 

they are presented in this volume. 

Essay on Secret Prayer. 

As the Duty and Privilege of Christiana 

BY JOSEPH ENTWISLE. 

18mo. y in paper covers. Price Six cents. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



H 



%>p&*m 



M 







016 060 401 3 



!fc£?^~^ 



30* 




■3iQ- 



**»: 




